STAGE SCENE
'Vagina Monologues' shocking, funny, sad

• 'Monologues' are all about self-respect
• Domestic violence center benefit planned

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

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'The Vagina Monologues' A play by Eve Ensler Premiering at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; repeats 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 5 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 3 Hawai'i Theatre $20-$45, at box office and Ticket Plus outlets; discounts for Hawai'i Theatre members, students, seniors and military 528-0506, 526-4400; group discounts (12 or more), 732-7733 On Maui: Actress Brooke Shields will join Michele Shay and Amy J. Carle. 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7, 8 p.m. Feb. 8, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 9, 2 p.m. Feb. 10 and 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theater; $10-$45, at theater box office. (808) 242-7469

Three stools, three microphones, for three women. All an audience really needs, playwright Eve Ensler surmised, to learn just about everything it ever really wanted to know about the vagina but was afraid to ask.

And over the course of two hours and 17 first-person narratives, Ensler's alternately hilarious, heart-wrenching and rhapsodic celebration of female genitalia "The Vagina Monologues" goes on its merry taboo-breaking way doing just that — in the process, reacquainting the X chromosome-set with, and illuminating the Y-chromosome set on, what it truly feels like to be a woman.

"There's something about this show that is so empowering, even as just an audience member," said Mackenzie Phillips, who is leading the female acting trio for the first week of "Monologues" in Honolulu. (Loretta Swit, most famously known as "Hot Lips" Houlihan from the "M*A*S*H TV series, will take over Jan. 29-Feb. 3.)

"It's not really a 'Wow, it's great to be a woman!' kind of play, but you do leave the the theater with a lighter, more free feeling about your body and who you are. That you can talk about your body, and you can laugh about it," Phillips said.

Perhaps best known among Baby Boomers as the pony-tailed wiseacre who puts a crimp in John Milner's night of chick-trolling in "American Graffiti," and to Gen-Xers as older sister Julie Cooper in the 1970s CBS sitcom "One Day At A Time," Phillips is also the offspring of music royalty. Her father is the late Mamas and the Papas mastermind John Phillips.

"Parts of the production are kind of shocking, but it's also extremely funny and at times very sad," said Phillips. "I mean, it has the whole range, which is why it's great for an actor."

A veteran of "Monologues" runs in Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — her baby sister Bijou even served time in an L.A. production — Phillips (as guest lead) will have the first choice of monologues while in Honolulu. Her favorite? Let's just say its title refers to women reclaiming a term of heretofore nasty V-word slang that you will never, ever read in a family newspaper.

"It's so outrageous and so freeing, for me, to be able to become this person who just loves the word, who just loves sex, who just loves everything sensual and physical and just lets go on stage,"Phillips excitedly said about, uh, Monologue No. 14. "I get to go crazy in that one."

Big Apple-based Michele Shay is a newcomer to the "Monologues" road show, but a graduate of a late-2001 New York stage run with Polly Bergen and Didi Conn.

"One of my favorites is 'The Vagina Workshop,'" said Shay, of a monologue told from the perspective of a British woman who experiences orgasm for the first time with some outside classroom study. "There are workshops that women can go to where they learn about their vaginas. And because there are many women who haven't experienced orgasm, they also learn what an orgasm is in these workshops."

A Tony-nominated stage actor (for August Wilson's play "Seven Guitars") with scattered film and television credits, Shay gets a kick out of the effect that "Monologue's" honest and extremely frank discussions of female sexuality tend to have on audiences.

"Everybody has their own experiences, and given the chance, they will keep you there after the show telling you story after story after story," said Shay. "There's a monologue called 'The Woman Who Loved To Make Vaginas Happy,' which has moans in it. And there was this one man who came up to me with his wife and wanted me to know that he was a moaner, too — not just women. And I thought that was adorable. He totally blushed when he said it, but it was important for him to be counted as a moaner."

Amy J. Carle, a self-proclaimed "'Vagina' virgin" with a mere handful of "Monologue" performances to her credit, was adamant about touting the show as safe and friendly for the estrogen-challenged set.

"This is not a rah-rah anti-male show at all," assured Carle, a Chicago-based stage actor, who also described the typical "Monologues" audience as a surprising 30 percent male. "In fact there's very very little male-bashing that goes on. As much as men might feel like they're going to a female experience, I think that there's a lot in the show for men. It's like being a fly on the wall and hearing all these things that you would probably never hear your wife or girlfriend talk about. I think it actually opens up a lot of avenues for conversation between men and women."

Phillips chose to be a bit more succinct in recommending "Monologues" to Honolulu males.

"Bring ... your ... girlfriend," instructed Phillips, enunciating each word for emphasis. "She'll be so excited when you get home that it could be a great night. I've seen men in the audience just laughing their heads off, having a great time. And you know their girlfriends dragged them there, like, (feigning extreme self-sacrifice) 'OK, honey, I'll do it for you.' And then they end up loving it. It's titillating, yes, but it could also help guys understand us better as women."

And that is only part of "Monologue's" reason for being, said Phillips' castmates.

"Eve has really captured the essence of what women feel about their bodies," said Carle. "In particular, their bodies and themselves as sexual beings."

Finished Shay: "She starts us in a place of disconnection with ourselves and moves us to a place of connection and empowerment. And that's a wonderful journey. You're coming, right?"

Well ... if my girlfriend insists.

Domestic violence center benefit planned

A benefit for the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse & Legal Hotline will be held from 5 p.m. Jan. 29 at Compadres Bar & Grill at Ward Centre.

The evening includes heavy pupu and cocktails, trolley transportation to and from Hawai'i Theatre and admission to the 7:30 p.m. performance of "The Vagina Monologues."

After the show, the cast will be invited back to Compadres with the guests.

Tickets are $100. Call the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse for reservations: 534-0040.

The Domestic Violence Clearinghouse is the designated nonprofit organization that will benefit from "Monologues." Producers of the show make a contribution off the top of the sales to a charity in each market it plays.