Review: PENIS MONOLOGUES IS IMPRESSIVE at Carrollwood Players Theatre

So, here's the long and short of it, Penis Monologues at Carrollwood Players was impressive. Though the length of the production was a little faster than most Black Box shows, the content of the seven short plays and four unexpected entries not listed took a very diverse sold-out audience - a mixture of men and women, millennial to senior citizen - on an often interactive ride of emotions.

With a title like Penis Monologues, you would expect the sexual innuendos dripping from every line. What you wouldn't expect was to be moved by a ghost who died 30 years ago at 30 during the start of a fatal disease, or the realness of one of the actors authentically looking for passionate sexual connection.

Set at the counter in a bar, what The Vagina Monologues did for women and taking back their vaginas, Penis Monologues did for men and, well, their dicks.

Definitely not a family-friendly show with adult content and language, there were, at first, uncomfortable titters from the audience when Joe Thomas launched in a monologue written by Victor Carr about wanting his "spaghetti dick al dente."

With a monologue written by Barry Silber, from circumcision and mentions of the Holocaust to Yiddish definitions for the male genitalia, Constantine Kyriakou explained about living a life with a Jewish penis.

Nic Harrington has to win the award for the best over-the-top scene entry ever. His monologue, written by Marc Sanders, about a date obsessed with Milo had the audience in stitches.

Bespectacled Allan T. Anderson entered the scene and slammed his bottle down splashing an unexpected audience member when he told his tale of a date from hell with the man attached to Milo - a continuation of Marc's monologue.

After intermission and a cat call to Milo from an audience member, Nic interacted with a now very receptive audience about his and their love of dick during an "I love dick" pep rally. Written by David James, the monologue shared all the reason why one should love all types of penises and their owners.

Reminiscent of Isabel Bertram in "My Angry Vagina" in The Vagina Monologues last season, Costa was pure power and larger than life performing "My Dick", written by Tyson Kadwell.

Joe had the audience, if not in tears, swallowing hard over a lump in their throat, in a monologue written by Daniel Michael Vinson.

And finally, Allan closed the show with a painful admission written again by Marc Sanders.

Or so we thought. A pleasant surprise still awaited the audience.

The interaction between the four cast members, the facial expressions, laughter and honest reactions made this show completely real and even for a female, relatable and enjoyable. This was a raw, ballsy production with very clever writing, helmed exceptionally by director Bo Smith. If you didn't get tickets to this sold-out one weekend show, you are sorely missing a perfectly tied-together performance by a quartet of exceptional actors.

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