{"id":1483,"date":"2012-07-06T21:06:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T21:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2012-07-25T21:07:05","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T21:07:05","slug":"new-eve-ensler-play-hopes-to-motivate-young-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/new-eve-ensler-play-hopes-to-motivate-young-women\/","title":{"rendered":"New Eve Ensler play hopes to motivate young women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cEmotional Creature,\u201d a new Berkeley Rep play by Eve Ensler, is all about empowerment and diversity for young women.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And universality. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Ensler\u2019s obituary undoubtedly will start with the phrase \u201ccreator of \u2018The Vagina Monologues,\u201d referring to her word-medley that\u2019s been translated into 48 languages and performed in more than 140 countries. <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
But now, while she\u2019s alive and well and dripping with success, she\u2019s into promoting what she calls the V-girls, members of a youth movement she believes will \u201camplify their voices and ignite a global girl revolution through art and activism\u201d \u2014 to, in effect, reshape the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Ensler\u2019s involvement stems from the fact that, according to the United Nations, \u201cone in three women will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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The V, she explains, stands simultaneously for victory, valentine and vagina.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Cast of Berkeley Rep\u2019s \u201cEmotional Creature\u201d brings Eve Ensler\u2019s words to life.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Photo, courtesy kevinberne.com<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cEmotional Creature\u201d focuses\u00a0<\/span>on all three of those elements in a string of disparate vignettes in a monologue-montage punctuated by singing and dance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Consider the following:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u2022 A high-school clique disses an outsider, keeping her off balance by changing from moment to moment who and what\u2019s \u201cin.\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n
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\u2022 Youths jauntily swap sexual details with friends.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u2022 Girls show obsessions with body image (focusing, for a change, on a nose job rather than boob enhancement) and clothing (short skirts are not an invitation to rape).<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u2022 Barbie symbolizes the unattainable \u2014 as well as the inability of women to communicate about their plights.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u2022 Third-world women become sexually enslaved, or are forced to suffer clitoral mutilation.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cEmotional Creature,\u201d based on Ensler\u2019s best-selling novel, \u201cI Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World,\u201d also rips stories from news headlines (or, perhaps, episodes of \u201cLaw and Order\u201d). <\/span><\/div>\n
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It dramatically bares, for instance, the suicide of a gay teen not bullied by peers but rejected by her parents.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Although the show does inject sporadic bits of humor, most of its exposition and delivery are hyper-serious \u2014 ranging from melancholy ballads to an anthem-like piece that extols a dozen activists such as Angela Davis, Joan of Arc, Julia Butterfly Hill and Anne Frank.<\/span><\/div>\n
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A world premiere tightly\u00a0<\/span>directed by Jo Bonney, \u201cEmotional Creatures\u201d \u2014 which runs under an hour and half \u2014 is headed for off-Broadway in the fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Meanwhile, each of the six current cast members \u2014 Ashley Bryant, Molly Carden, Emily S. Grosland, Joaquina Kaulkango, Sade Namel and Olivia Oguma \u2014 is a pro at a young age. Individual skills with accents are especially deserving of plaudits.<\/span><\/div>\n
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There\u2019s always a touch of polemic in Ensler\u2019s creations. \u201cEmotional Creature\u201d is no exception.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Before the show starts, for example, projected images include statistics that scream at you: \u201cThe body type portrayed in advertising as ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.\u201d \u201cWhen asked to cite their hobbies, 80% of girls aged 13-18 listed shopping.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Once \u201cEmotional Creature\u201d begins, the proselytizing doesn\u2019t end. Heavy-handed rhetoric runs wild: \u201cWould you rather be called a dyke or a bitch?\u201d \u201cWould you rather be killed in a high school shooting or a nuclear war?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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When it\u2019s over, cynics may find the play and its weighty messages to be an expanded update on the 1971 hit song by Helen Reddy, \u201cI Am Woman,\u201d aimed this go-round at younger females.<\/span><\/div>\n
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My wife, an older female, thought the show was impressive \u2014 and important. <\/span><\/div>\n
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That figures. She has a vagina.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I wasn\u2019t as touched. I found it superficial and riddled with old news. <\/span><\/div>\n
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But then, of course, I\u2019m missing that key organ.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cEmotional Creature\u201d plays at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2018s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through July 15. Night performances, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m. Matinees, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $14.50 to $73, subject to change, (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEmotional Creature,\u201d a new Berkeley Rep play by Eve Ensler, is all about empowerment and diversity for young women. And universality. Ensler\u2019s obituary undoubtedly will start with the phrase \u201ccreator…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"