Pregnant actress Lucy lawless is headlining the Auckland production of controversial American play
The Vagina Monologues and National Radio's Kim Hill will guest star in the Wellington version. The
show - which has grabbed headlines overseas with its provocative content and rotating, consistently
high-profile cast - is a series of character-driven monologues based on playwright Eve Ensler's
conversations with more than 200 women about their vaginas. Auckland Theatre Company's season,
starring lawless, Danielle Cormack and Madeleine Sami, opens on February 14: Dunedin's fortune
Theatre production, directed by and starring Rima Te Wiata opens on February 8 and Wellington's
Downstage Theatre is planning to stage the play in march. In Wellington there will be a core cast of
two women and the third role will be played by a series of guests. One guest will be radio host Kim
Hill and the theatre has approached a number of other high-profile women about taking on the
role. Lawless is back from a round of talk show commitments in Los Angeles and Christmas with her husbands family in Michigan. "I embarrassed talk show hosts in the States because I insisted on using the word vagina," she says. "In fact I probably used it a bit too much." Lawless doesn't know the sex of her third child (her second with husband Rob Tapert, the two have a son Julius and Lawless has a 13 year old daughter Daisy from her first marriage), which is due in April or May. By the time the Auckland play wraps she will be eight months pregnant. "I don't particularly enjoy [being pregnant] to be honest," she says. However, Lawless, best known for her work on Xena, says she has no fear she'll be exhausted coping with the rehearsal or performance schedule and pregnancy. "It's not as exhausting as stunt fighting," Lawless says. "And I was stunt fighting until I was eight months with my last one....this has been a cake walk so far."
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