Nobody talks about vaginas. The word is avoided in conversation – it’s to be spoken in hushed voices and accompanied by giggles or shouted as the punch line to a dirty joke or waved like a battle flag by the kind of militant feminists that many refuse to take seriously. But with “The Vagina Monologues,” Eve Ensler singlehandedly turns this social norm on its head, making the vagina a symbol of empowerment and strength and independence and womanhood while maintaining enough wit and hilarity to charm even the most cynical of viewers. The exceptional student cast channels the humor, directness and poignancy of Ensler’s words to make for a truly memorable experience. And the fact that the “Vagina Monologues” are based on a series of interviews with real women – each monologue is either a true story for a single women or a compilation from several – only acts to heighten the empathy of the audience, strengthening both the humor and the tragedy of the piece.

Most striking about the show was the range of topics: the monologues varied from laugh-out-loud funny to empowering to downright devastating. When Morgan Duffy ‘13 ranted about her “Angry Vagina,” her alternating cold sarcasm and white-hot fury brought about howls of laughter in the audience, and Leslie Brian ’12 was met by raucous laughter as she mused about her eccentric experiences in a “Vagina Workshop.” And yet, as soon as you’d grown comfortable and you felt like you knew exactly what kind of a show you were watching, you would be abruptly yanked out of your comfort zone and thrown into the profound, the tragic and the alarming. I got chills when the women performed a speech from the transgender perspective, I trembled as I watched Belinda Chiang’s ‘10 deeply disturbing account of a girl who had been gang-raped for days by six soldiers, and I’m certain that I was not alone. The show was uncompromising and wild; it refused to be predictable.

One might expect this inconsistency to take you out of the moment, but the vast range was much of what made the show really work: it never lingered on tragedy long enough to feel preachy. Instead, it made its impression, painted a single absolutely heartbreaking moment that the audience could truly believe in and then whisked us away to an equally believable moment of hilarity. The contrast between each monologue didn’t make them undermine each other – to the contrary, they helped to build on each other, overlapping to create a single multifaceted feeling, a sort of summary of the female experience.

A few high points: Lyn Mehe’ula’s ‘11 monologue from the perspective of a queer woman with a history of sexual abuse was one of the most compelling and believable performances of the night, and Ariel Mazel-Gee’s ‘12 account of a female-only sex worker (in which she writhed and kicked her way through impressions of increasingly absurd female orgasms) was undeniably hilarious.

At the end of the night, despite the small size of the Wednesday audience, “Vagina Monologues” was compelling enough to easily melt away any cynicism and reluctance; the audience was quick to laugh and – though initially quiet and reluctant – shouted along when the show called for audience participation. “Vagina Monologues” had no need for complex props or costumes; it got by on the charm of its cast and the truly authentic feel to its material. Whether you’re seeking an educational and empowering experience or just looking for a laugh, head to Cubberley tonight for the final show and you will find what you are looking for.