Along with graduation speakers, the other big fight on Catholic campuses (brought to us by the Cardinal Newman Society, of course) is around The Vagina Monologues. Now, Catholic News Agency reports, there’s a theatrical alternative to Eve Ensler’s provocative one-woman play: The Vitae Monologues.

Like its counterpart, The Vitae Monologues tells true stories, but there are two voices, allowing there to be both a male and female perspective, and the subject is post-abortion trauma.

Epiphany Studio Productions claims it is “non-political...engaging audiences to think about this controversial subject from a new and very real perspective.” I highly doubt the play “non-political,” and I’m not sure it should strive to be so.

Perhaps this is the new creative response of a younger generation of pro-lifers—those like the ND student turned off by Operation Rescue's tactics (from WSJ): "I consider myself someone who supports life and wants to protect life wherever possible, but I don't want to identify myself as a pro-life American as [the movement] currently stands." 

Epiphany Studio Productions is run by young Catholics, including founder Jeremy Stanbury and his very new wife, Sarah (website says they got married this month!), the actors in Vitae.

Still, I think there’s value in The Vagina Monologues as well, making us confront sexual assualt and rape, as this essay on BustedHalo says. The strength of both plays is that they tell true stories from real people, and I hope that Vitae can accompany and not replace Vagina Monologues.