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Rating: 
Summary: Eve Ensler for President
Review: Eve Ensler has struck again & I hope to find more of her stuff soon. Although not as good as "The Vagina Monologues" (a fantastic must-read!), "Necessary Targets" is still a touching story (in play format). Just the sheer joy of knowing that Eve Ensler is out there somewhere made me read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Of women and war
Review: Eve Ensler's "Necessary Targets" is a thought-provoking play. In her introduction, Ensler notes that, in 1993, she traveled to the former Yugoslavia in order to interview female war refugees. This play evokes the lives of those displaced women.The play deals with two American women: Melissa, a writer and trauma counselor, and J.S., a psychiatrist. They travel to Bosnia and hold group sessions with several women, of various ages, who have become refugees as a result of the wall. Their conversations are at times tense, funny, or painful. "Necessary Targets" is a compelling depiction of a cross-cultural encounter. Throughout the play there was, in my mind, a question: Are Melissa and J.S. helping these women, or merely exploiting them to further their own agendas? Also interesting is Ensler's exploration of perceptions of the U.S. and Americans held by people from other nations. In her introduction, Ensler notes, "When we think of war, we think of it as something that happens to men in fields or jungles." Thus, this play is a valuable window into the female world of war.
Rating:
Summary: Of women and war
Review: Eve Ensler's "Necessary Targets" is a thought-provoking play. In her introduction, Ensler notes that, in 1993, she traveled to the former Yugoslavia in order to interview female war refugees. This play evokes the lives of those displaced women. The play deals with two American women: Melissa, a writer and trauma counselor, and J.S., a psychiatrist. They travel to Bosnia and hold group sessions with several women, of various ages, who have become refugees as a result of the wall. Their conversations are at times tense, funny, or painful. "Necessary Targets" is a compelling depiction of a cross-cultural encounter. Throughout the play there was, in my mind, a question: Are Melissa and J.S. helping these women, or merely exploiting them to further their own agendas? Also interesting is Ensler's exploration of perceptions of the U.S. and Americans held by people from other nations. In her introduction, Ensler notes, "When we think of war, we think of it as something that happens to men in fields or jungles." Thus, this play is a valuable window into the female world of war.
Rating:
Summary: Our mother the war
Review: I adore Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues", so I looked forward to reading this new work from her. This dark, insistent play is about two American women who travel to Bosnia to help women confront the atrocities they faced and the atrocities they experienced. Ultimately the two Americans find themselves changing in unexpected ways as they face their ill-conceived notions of what it means to be a refugee. It's a powerful work about the endurance of human spirit, about the effects of war on the women who don't fight the war but only clean up afterwards. As much as I like this play and find it important, I was less moved by it overall than moved by the ideas behind the play. And yet, I find it lingering in my periphery as a reminder, which I think is the point.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mother Goddess for A Care-Hungry World
Review: I was fortunate enough to see this play performed live, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was already an Eve Ensler fan, having performed myself in a college production of The Vagina Monologues, but I am also a harsh theatre critic, attending 8 or more professional productions a year (for the last 15 years) and often finding them lacking. Neccessary Targets is one of the best plays I have ever had the honor of finding myself engaged in. The characters are female archetypes we are all famillar with, and yet they each have their own unique stories. During the course of the play, they find themselves stomping bravely or furiously down paths they never even supposed were out there, hovering just off the beaten track...leaving the geographically familliar for the foreign, the psycholgically comforting for the disruptive, finding peace in sorrow, and joy in chaos. For anyone wishing to expand their understanding of how women in the global South or women in war-torn nations subsist psychologicaly--this is your play. Eve Ensler is a goddess. In this play, her creations range from an elderly woman who longs for her long-gone beloved cow, to a teenage mother, unwilling to acknowledge the loss of her newborn infant, from an uptight/urban therapist who needs to learn how to feel compassion and forget about wrinkle-free clothes, to a freedom-fighting hiking-boot-wearing all 'round adventurer with an intense insecurity complex. It's a must read and a must see.
Rating:
Summary: The untold horrors of war - told here
Review: I was introduced to Eve Ensler through "The Vagina Monologues." That book is one of the most moving and vital books I've read in a long time. I eagerly grabbed "Necessary Targets" thinking it would have the same emotional impact as one of her previous monologues about the horrible acts performed against women in war. I hate to admit it, but I was very disappointed in "Necessary Targets." Until the last 15 pages of the play, I was unable to really find a connection with any of the women portrayed. I tried again and again and even felt guilty for feeling nothing. I would still recommend this play for the overall message Ensler presents and the play's themes. It is educational and eye-opening concerning the horrors of war that no one likes to talk about. Please, also consider picking up a copy of "The Vagina Monologues," by far Ensler's best work to date. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: The untold horrors of war - told here
Review: I was introduced to Eve Ensler through "The Vagina Monologues." That book is one of the most moving and vital books I've read in a long time. I eagerly grabbed "Necessary Targets" thinking it would have the same emotional impact as one of her previous monologues about the horrible acts performed against women in war. I hate to admit it, but I was very disappointed in "Necessary Targets." Until the last 15 pages of the play, I was unable to really find a connection with any of the women portrayed. I tried again and again and even felt guilty for feeling nothing. I would still recommend this play for the overall message Ensler presents and the play's themes. It is educational and eye-opening concerning the horrors of war that no one likes to talk about. Please, also consider picking up a copy of "The Vagina Monologues," by far Ensler's best work to date. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Words can never describe war, but Ensler comes close
Review: My first read left me disappointed because I thought it was a flimsy account of war, but finally Necessary Targets began to grow on me. I think it's ingenious that Ensler tells the story from an American perspective. As an American woman, I've never spent a single day or night in the midst of a warzone--and bombs and shells are a minute portion of what Bosnian women endured. Melissa's distance and J.S.'s transformation make it very clear how removed we Americans can be from the attrocities of war. Ensler is right--we only think about the bombs, bloodshed, and battles. Because the media tends to ignore the drudgeries and aftermaths, we do as well. Maybe I thought at first that this play was missing the noisy, concrete aspects of war. But it's the abstract--the emotional and mental damage--that people need to consider. Ensler brings that aspect of war hauntingly close with this play.
Rating:
Summary: Words can never describe war, but Ensler comes close
Review: My first read left me disappointed because I thought it was a flimsy account of war, but finally Necessary Targets began to grow on me. I think it's ingenious that Ensler tells the story from an American perspective. As an American woman, I've never spent a single day or night in the midst of a warzone--and bombs and shells are a minute portion of what Bosnian women endured. Melissa's distance and J.S.'s transformation make it very clear how removed we Americans can be from the attrocities of war. Ensler is right--we only think about the bombs, bloodshed, and battles. Because the media tends to ignore the drudgeries and aftermaths, we do as well. Maybe I thought at first that this play was missing the noisy, concrete aspects of war. But it's the abstract--the emotional and mental damage--that people need to consider. Ensler brings that aspect of war hauntingly close with this play.
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