Eve Ensler’s latest work evokes teen viewpoints from around the globe
BY MICHAEL SOMMERS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
OFF BROADWAY REVIEW
Among my most vivid memories in more than 30 years of reviewing the New York theater scene is watching Eve Ensler soar through her soon-to be-celebrated “Vagina Monologues” as a solo show in a 60-seat SoHo space. Ever since that intense and enlightening experience, I have been a big fan of Ensler’s positive, forthright points of social view, if not always of the various works she has created.
So it is with Ensler’s latest piece, “Emotional Creature,” which opened in its New York premiere at the Pershing Square Signature Center complex on Monday.
The complexities of being a teenaged girl in this confusing day and world constitute Ensler’s topic, which is brightly rendered by six young actors who give voice to an international array of trends, thoughts and conditions.
Expect to hear them talk frankly about self-image stresses, sexuality and boys (and girls), peer pressure, pregnancy, exploited sex slaves in Bulgaria, teens trying to escape genital mutilation in Africa, and so forth; aspects of modern female adolescence viewed from its lightest to darkest angles.
