ENSLER CUTTING TO THE QUICK OF SELF-IMAGE IN 'GOOD BODY'.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic BY HER OWN account, it has taken Eve Ensler Eve Ensler (born 25 May 1953 in Scarsdale, New York) is a playwright and feminist activist best known for the play ''The Vagina Monologues. Personal life Ensler graduated from Middlebury College in 1975. She married Richard McDermott in 1978 and divorced in 1988. her entire adolescent and adult life, requiring countless interviews, thousands of frequent-flier miles, and infinite sit-ups to reach the conclusion that the stomach she is carrying around - unremarkable by most standards - is not the biological monstrosity monstrosity 1. great congenital deformity. 2. a monster or teratism. she has long supposed it to be. Via her solo performance ``The Good Body,'' Ensler requires only 85 minutes to impart her life's stomach acceptability highlights. Boy, do we get the better end of the deal. The blood runs icy at the thought of how many women (and, yes, men) have seen the solo act potential of ``My journey via weight loss and/or cosmetic surgery cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes, such as the improvement of the appearance of the face by removing wrinkles or reshaping the nose. to a better me. How I learned to love myself.'' The gods be praised, then, that this is not the tale that Ensler has chosen to tell. As she demonstrated with ``The Vagina Monologues,'' Ensler is as canny a listener and distiller as she is a raconteur rac·on·teur n. One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit. [French, from raconter, to relate, from Old French : re-, re- + aconter, . Unquestionably un·ques·tion·a·ble adj. Beyond question or doubt. See Synonyms at authentic. un·ques  tion·a·bil , ``The Good Body'' is Ensler's personal story, but - as with ``Monologues'' - she is using other women's experiences to propel the ruminations forward. At the Wadsworth Theatre, where Ensler is staging a short run of ``The Good Body'' as part of a tour, we can see that the lady can more than hold her own as an actress as well as a mimic. Stomach or no stomach, Ensler is distinctive-looking. The jet-black bob, the malleable face, the economy of movement, her unique choice of costume accessories (aided by costume designer Susan Hilferty) - the performer can easily hold an empty stage. Her own persona, a radical feminist perversely and comically obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. with her own stomach, is entertainingly put forth, and Ensler's other characters are masterful. They include 80-something Cosmopolitan publisher Helen Gurley Brown Helen Gurley Brown (b. February 18, 1922 in Green Forest, Arkansas), is an author, publisher, and businesswoman. She was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years. Brown's father died in an accident when she was young, and her sister was a polio victim. , actress Isabella Rossellini and various models, gurus, body piercers and support-group desperadoes, all of whom have some well-earned insight into the female form. Ensler's assorted storytellers are internationally diverse, and the focus is, by no means, all about bellies. A middle-age housewife has her vagina surgically tightened, to her husband's great pleasure and to her own considerable pain. A plastic surgeon's wife has her body transformed into her husband's sexual and professional canvas. A young Italian woman has her breasts removed in the hopes of losing unwanted attention. And on it goes. The playwright/performer has chosen her subjects carefully, with an eye toward humor, openness and authenticity. The queasiness-inducing little jolts that a given tale can induce are carefully handled. Nor is ``The Good Body'' an effort to hold men or male standards of beauty exclusively responsible for the body loathing/altering loop that women enter. In several cases, it's insensitive female friends who give bad advice. Or, worse, mothers who are belittling be·lit·tle tr.v. be·lit·tled, be·lit·tling, be·lit·tles 1. To represent or speak of as contemptibly small or unimportant; disparage: a person who belittled our efforts to do the job right. their own daughters' self-image. Ensler does not give her own personal predicament a comic-tinged short shrift short shrift n. 1. Summary, careless treatment; scant attention: These annoying memos will get short shrift from the boss. 2. Quick work. 3. a. - despite the Pilates balls that are periodically flung on stage. We're encouraged to laugh at/with the stomach-crazy writer more than at those who don't have Ensler's life wisdom and contextual perspective. By evening's end, however, when Ensler is trying to pile a life's worth of insecurities onto that unfortunate belly, you get the sense that overkill overkill Vox populi An excess of anything has taken over. All the same, ``The Good Body'' - directed by Peter Askin - is good viewing and good food for thought, whether chased down with Ben & Jerry's or a tasteless bowl of edamame Edamame is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod commonly found in China and Japan. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments such as salt, and served whole. . Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com THE GOOD BODY - Three and one half stars Where: Wadsworth Theatre, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Feb. 12. Tickets: $30 to $69. Call (213) 365-3500. In a nutshell: The author of ``The Vagina Monologues'' turns her investigation, intriguingly, inward and upward. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Belly-obsessed Eve Ensler uses the experiences of other women to move forward the ruminations on body issues. |
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