The provocative title of this semester’s opening play of the Theatre Season at AUBG created a lot of buzz among students. “The Vagina Monologues” was played on Wednesday, April 15, at the ABF Theatre Hall. The play was part of the Applied Theater course and was directed by prof. Nedyalko Delchev.

“The Vagina Monologues”  is written by the American playwright Eve Ensler and was performed by six girls: Ayna Pirkuliyeva, Kira Kiritchenko, Kumush Nepesova, Lorena Elezi, Nikoleta Gancheva and Yoana Savova. Their characters revealed women’s deepest intimate thoughts and fears.

Pirkuliyeva played the role of a “host,” who introduced the topics of the different monologues, told the stories behind them, and made the transitions from monologue to monologue. In a humorist manner, Pirkuliyeva opened the play, provoking the public by repeating the word “vagina” many times in different concepts, making it sound not like a taboo, but like an ordinary, casual word. Dressed in white in contrast to the other five actresses, who were entirely dressed in black, Pirkuliyeva interacted with the audience and created a positive, non-serious atmosphere.

Four of the actresses  during the play.

Each of the five monologues was referred to a feminine experience in different aspects of life such as sex, love affairs, masturbation, homosexuality, rape, etc. A repetitive element of the monologues was the role of the vagina as a defining aspect of the woman’s individuality. The roles varied from little girls to old ladies, who have discovered the value of their “vaginas”  as an estimation of their woman’s personality.

The end of the play evoked a large wave of emotions. As part of the last monologue, the lights were shut and all of the girls on the stage started imitating different modes of a women’s orgasms. All of them were quite ironical, which caused huge laugh and exuberance among the audience.

“I very much loved ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ I thought it was direct and provocative, but not disturbing in any way,”  Sava Stoyanov, a first-year student said. “It had just the right amount of both funny and serious topics and it blended them nicely. And the acting was supreme,” he added.

The end of the play was signed by a story of a woman who was giving birth. All of the actresses revealed with different sentences the main aspects of that experience, underling the importance of women as carriers of life.

 “’The Vagina Monologues’ was a bold, entertaining, and stereotypes-breaking play, performed by six talented girls who kept the audience’s attention throughout the whole show. Definitely one of the coolest and freshest plays I’ve seen on campus,”  Tsvetiana Zaharieva, a second-year student said, emphasizing on the appeal of the ideas of freedom of speech honesty and empowerment, which were touched upon in the play.

Gancheva, one of the actresses, shared that she feels even changed after that play regarding the feeling of being ashamed. Such an open-minded role has widen her horizons and she has no concerns to talk freely in front of a big audience.

“I used to be very shy before and acting really changed that, and I think that it would be very helpful in my future life and career,” Gancheva said.

The Theatre Season at AUBG would continue during the weekend, as well as the next week, with more plays to come.

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