THIS show has enjoyed worldwide success since 2001, and I have been meaning to catch it for a while, so was looking forward to an evening of… I wasn’t sure what, really.

What I, and the rest of the women in the audience (there were about 10 men in total, bless them) got was a wonderful evening celebrating and discussing our most intimate parts.

As the four women on stage started to utter the word (that which must not be named) over and over, I gradually started to relax and enjoy tales, both hilarious and harrowing, of womankind.

Anita Dobson was undoubtedly the star of the show, her enormously expressive face and fantastic accents (particularly her 72-year-old New Yoiker’s tales of when she was a “goil”) simply hilarious – the show just would not have been the same without her.

Nevertheless, the three others in the line-up all had their part to play, with ex-EastEnder Louisa Lytton handling the “naughty word” topic brilliantly, and Zaraah Abrahams’ sensitive approach to a devastating tale of rape camps in Bosnia was exactly right.

Our very own Sally Taylor, such a warm nightly presence in our living rooms, lost none of her dignity and poise as she related stories with legs akimbo (you don’t see that on South Today)!

A moving and funny show, it should probably be a rite of passage for all women to see the Vagina Monologues, and this cast did a sterling job, with Dobson’s absolutely hilarious three-orgasm montage in the second act the highlight of the night.