The ultimate girl's night out, sex has never been funnier or more poignant than in The Vagina Monologues - a collection of highly original stories gathered by the show's dynamic creator, New Yorker Eve Ensler.
Ensler asked more than 200 women of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and walks of life to share their most intimate secrets in vagina interviews on such normally taboo topics as birth, sex, orgasms and relationships with truly revelatory results.
Ensler recalls: "I don't really remember how it began - a conversation with an older woman about her vagina. She said contemptuous things that shocked me and got me thinking about what other women thought about their vaginas.
"I remember asking friends, who surprised me with their openness and willingness to talk. One friend told me if her vagina got dressed, it would wear a beret. She was going through a French phase."
Bringing this witty and moving collection of tales to Fairfield Halls in Croydon are Jan Shepherd, whose theatre credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Cordeila in King Lear.
Stand-up comic and singer/ songwriter Abi Roberts - who starred in a one-woman show called Taking Charlie at the Edinburgh Festival - joins the cast in her Vagina Monologues debut, while stage veteran Annette McLaughlin completes the trio.
Some of the world's most successful women have taken part in The Vagina Monologues including Sharon Osbourne, Kate Winslet, Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Mariella Frostrup, Honor Blackman, and Maureen Lipman.
The show is a global phenomenon, with multiple productions in more than 25 countries and open-ended runs in New York and Paris.
Every performance of The Vagina Monologues will donate a portion of ticket sales to the V-day fund, an organisation that provides charitable aid to women and girls who have been victims of abuse and violence. Since May 2001, the West End production of The Vagina Monologues alone donated in excess of £70,000 to local charities.
Ensler adds: "The miracle of V-Day, like The Vagina Monologues, is that it happened because it had to happen.
"Something is unfolding. It is both mystical and practical. It requires that we show up, do our exercise and get out of the way. In order for the human race to continue, women must be safe and empowered.
"It's an obvious idea but, like a vagina, it needs great attention and love in order to be revealed."
The Vagina Monologues
£16/£14.50
September 21
Fairfield Halls, Croydon
020 8699 9291
fairfield.co.uk
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