The Vagina Monologues, Regent TheatreEVE Ensler's Vagina Monologues has become one of the hit stories of modern theatre.A show made up of a series of monologues written from interviews with women around the world about the most intimate experiences of their lives, its subject matter is one rarely discussed openly.

The Vagina Monologues, Regent Theatre

EVE Ensler's Vagina Monologues has become one of the hit stories of modern theatre.

A show made up of a series of monologues written from interviews with women around the world about the most intimate experiences of their lives, its subject matter is one rarely discussed openly.

Female stars of stage and screen have all clamoured to perform in the show and take their turn to tell the stories included in it.

From humble beginnings at a fringe theatre in New York in 1996, it has since spent two years in the West End and toured to every major city in the world.

Since 1996, A-listers such as Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Sophie Dahl, Oprah Winfrey and Winona Ryder have taken their turn in America, while in the UK, the monologues have been told by more than 80 actresses, television presenters and pop stars.

Often funny, sometimes difficult to hear and occasionally moving, the monologues explore almost every possible aspect of a woman's relationship with her own body.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a very entertaining show, and one that the Regent audience appeared to enjoy every minute of, I still came away with a puzzled look on my face.

Call me far too British, but I still think there is some things that we just don't need to discuss in great detail on stage. Personally, I found Eve Ensler's efforts to speak to women in what is supposed to be a liberating way, fairly alienating.

But this show is cleverly written in such as way as to make you feel a prude if you come away feeling enlightened and liberated.

On the surface, The Vagina Monologues is a mostly funny and entertaining piece of theatre, but it's efforts to speak to women on a new level left me feeling a bit cold - perhaps the message that every woman's life experiences are different came across a little too clearly and I struggled to find empathise with many of the stories told.

When this show comes round again - which it undoubtedly will - it is definitely worth a look, if for no other reason than to see what all the hype is about.

But as for the hype itself, then for this woman, it all felt a little unsatisfying.

HELEN JOHNS