After teaching women to talk about what’s going on “down there” in the international sensation “The Vagina Monologues,” playwright and activist Eve Ensler takes on the body image struggles women face at every stage of life and across the world in her play “The Good Body.” Hub Theater Company’s managing director Lauren Elias talks about what makes this play an intimate, frank and funny conversation about every body being a “good body.” What’s your role in the production? Body image is not a new conversation topic, so what about “The Good Body” makes this conversation different? How does “The Good Body” compare to “The Vagina Monologues”? Is it the same style of multiple personal narratives? It sounds like the play will incorporate a lot of international perspectives on beauty. If you go:
I’m producing and acting in this one. I play the character that is Eve Ensler. The show is about all these women I meet on my quest to accept my body, and all the women in the play are based on real women she has met in her life.
I think what “The Good Body” does so brilliantly is it brings humor and real people into the conversation. Even if you’re complete strangers, you’re going to feel that you shared something with them.
It is similar in the style of “The VaginaMonologues” inthat there aren’t many scenes. It’s mostly a monologue-based play, and then between each monologue, I as Eve offer commentary.
What I find the most interesting from my perspective of taking Eve’s journey is the further Eve and I get away from the Western world is when we finally start meeting women who really love their bodies. The play tells the stories of women ranging in age from 16 to 65 and from such varied and various places as Los Angeles, Italy, New York City, India, Kenya, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico and everywhere in between.
Through July 30
Club Cafe
209 Columbus Ave., Boston
Tickets are “pay what you can” (suggested price: $20)
hubtheatreboston.ticketleap.com/thegoodbody/
What makes a ‘Good Body’?
Tim Gurczak
