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While
the production may have lost some of its shock value, the subject
matter still caused enough of a stir to leave an audience of 200
women and 10 men in the Stanwix Arts Theatre excited to hear more.
C
U Next Tuesday
The
six sisters were doing it for themselves from the beginning with
a fully comprehensive run-through of colourful pseudonyms for the
vagina - just within Cumbria. Do differences in slang words for
'vagina' really differ from Flimby to Maryport?
No
stone was left unturned, no crevice left unexplored, in the inexorable
march toward female (and maybe male) self-enlightenment.
Seated
on bar stools in a semicircle, the six members of the Cockermouth
Amateur Dramatic Society regaled scripts from interviews conducted
by the American Eve Ensler, with hundreds of other sisters.
They
began with a tale of discovery. Liz Fitton's 72-year-old woman had
difficulty examining herself because of crippling arthritis, and
thus likened herself to a cellar; dark and damp as "no one
ever goes down there!".
R
U A Bob?
The
'Bob' monologue tickled the audience as Gwen Hotson described the
hero of the title, the man who wanted to look at her vagina. Why
would a man want to stare at my red leather couch? For over an hour
he used it to define her personality in such detail he may as well
have been reading her palm. Badges asking R U A BOB?, Be my Bob
or for the men "I'm a Bob" sold out during the interval.
But
there was sensitivity among the soul-searching. The lights dimmed
blue as Becky Musto portrayed a Bosnian rape victim. She described
how her vagina used to be like fields of green while her alter ego
Louise Dixon sat shrouded in shadow and spoke candidly of the sexual
abuse she received from soldiers.
Oh
yeah
The
climax of the evening was delivered in a memorable When Harry Met
Sally mock-up. The Groan Monologue was depicted in a variety of
moans for different, shall we say, occasions?
Liz
Fitton was brilliant at her pre-O, post-O and the 'Elvis' groan.
She showed considerable restraint unlike many of her fellow actors
who couldn't help cracking up at this point.
And
the moral of the story? Compere Jill Roper insisted the clitoris
has twice the number of nerves than the penis so,"why have
a gun when you can have a semi automatic?"
Written
by Natalie Mace
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