The Vagina Monologues

Tuesday, Feb. 14, Thursday, Feb. 16, and Saturday, Feb. 18. 7:30 p.m.

Andover Chapel, Divinity School. $8.



On a list of statements you’d never expect to hear in Andover Chapel, “My vagina is furious and it needs to talk” would sit near the top.

But come Feb. 14, that venerable church at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) will be filled with genitalia-related sentiments during performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” Eve Ensler’s modern classic about female sexuality.

Twenty HDS students, faculty, and staff will present the play in honor of V-Day, an international movement to end violence against women. The event is co-sponsored by the Women’s Studies in Religion Program, the Office of Student Life, and the Student Association Executive Committee.

With the ticket price set at $8, organizers plan to donate all the proceeds from “The Vagina Monologues” to Casa Myrna Vasquez, a Boston shelter founded by Elizabeth Rice Smith ’74 and dedicated to curbing domestic violence.

According to Sarah Peck, the HDS student who is directing the production, participants hope to raise over $4,000 for the organization. But Peck emphasizes that buying a ticket to the show is much more than just a donation.

She says even just viewing the show is an “opportunity to not only expose the violence done to women every day across the world, but to creatively explore and challenge the presuppositions all of us hold about the value of female bodies.”

Ensler interviewed more than 200 women to create the script of “Monologues,” which which won an Obie Award when it was first performed Off-Broadway in 1996. Since then, the play has been translated into 29 languages, adapted for television by HBO, and, in 2001, performed in Madison Square Garden by such luminaries as Whoopi Goldberg and Melissa Etheridge.

Though “Monologues” will likely be a much smaller affair, with only three shows comprising its entire run, this production promises to be uniquely relevant. It is the only official event commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of women to HDS, implicitly reminding viewers that, not so long ago, women weren’t even allowed to attend the institution, let alone wax poetic about their sexuality in its—literally—hallowed halls. For those who still aren’t convinced that such things have a place at HDS, “Monologues” participants have prepared a concise retort, conveniently printed on a T-shirt that they plan to sell at the show. It reads, simply, “God Loves Vaginas.”