The Good Body
Eve Ensler is famous for her Vagina Monologues, which led to V-Day (a global movement to end violence against women) and enabled Ensler to travel the world. Along the way, she interviewed ethnically diverse women. Most agreed that the one thing they'd change about themselves was their weight. Ensler identified, "because I have bought into the idea that if my stomach were flat, then I would be good, safe, accepted, important, loved." The other side of this notion: every imperfect body part's an outward sign that you were "born wrong and bad." The Good Body attacks these attitudes. Tormented by her stomach ("my most serious committed relationship"), a character named Eve encounters 11 international women who have been able, or are still trying, to feel at home in their bodies. The subject and Ensler's findings aren't new (Naomi Wolf's 1991 Beauty Myth takes a more in-depth look). What gives the show its freshness are Ensler's humor and a splendid production by the San Diego Rep. Carole Foreman, Deanna Driscoll, and Linda Libby cut loose, playing everyone from Helen Gurley Brown still clinging to the ideal at age 80 to a Brentwood matron wanting to improve her sex life. Directed with flair by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, and wearing Jennifer Brawn Giddings's around-the-world-in-80-intermissionless-minutes costumes, the trio excels. Victoria Petrovich's sleek scenic design also makes a telling comment about the mindlessness of pursuing a Platonic ideal: six tattooed mannequins on stage are headless.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, September 28, 2008
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 8pm |