Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, will return to that theatre project which brought her international attention Jan. 7-26, closing out Monologues' run at Off-Broadway's Westside Theatre Downstairs.

The Vagina Monologues are just that — solo contemplations on a woman's most intimate body part. Ensler interviewed 200 diverse women, including the elderly; African-Americans; and Bosnian rape victims, asking them a myriad of questions from "What do you call your vagina?" to "If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?" The play has been celebrated for its frank approach to its subject. The show is serious, comic, political, revealing and liberating, observers have said.

Ensler first performed The Vagina Monologues at HERE in 1996. Since the play's current Off-Broadway debut, her play Necessary Targets was produced around the world (including Off-Broadway in the winter of 2002). Her latest work, The Good Body, has its eye on Broadway in 2004, Ensler has said.

Joe Mantello, who staged Love! Valour! Compassion! on Broadway, is the director of the show.

$10 from each The Vagina Monologues ticket goes to the V-Day Initiative, in support of women's issues. Tickets are $55. For further information on the Westside engagement, call (212) 239 6200. *

Moving in to displace Vagina Monologues in early 2003 is Daniel Stern's two-character marriage comedy, Barbra's Wedding, about how Barbra Streisand's wedding impacts her married neighbors on the star's nuptial day. Performances begin Feb. 11, 2003, under the direction of David Warren. No cast has been announced.