When I first sat down in Memorial Auditorium on Thursday to see “The Vagina Monologues,” I was not really sure what to expect. I had been given a program by Stephanie Erdice, the director of the Women’s Center, but even with reading that I was not totally prepared for the production I sat down to watch.

I knew the play was serious, or about serious topics, but I did not expect it to be funny. I am pretty sure I laughed out loud for 90 percent of the one-and-a-half hour running time.

The play started when one of the actors, embedded in the audience, began asking questions. She asked the people around her, “Are you worried?” going from person to person in her immediate vicinity. Eventually, she stepped out into the aisle to proclaim that she was worried — about her vagina.

From there, the play progressed through 17 monologues, ranging from shaving, to giving birth and to products like tampons.

Every topic discussed in the play was serious and no two monologues were presented in the same way. The first, called “Hair,” was about a woman being forced to shave her vagina by her husband and was presented by a lone woman on stage.

Another monologue, “My Vagina Is My Village,” was presented by two women who are essentially the same character, with one showcasing the “before” and one the “after” of her traumatic rape in the camps that were prevalent during the Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995.

Right after that, the tone shifted from serious to slightly funny during the “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could,” a scene about a girl discovering that she is a lesbian. That is really where “The Vagina Monologues” performed incredibly well. It hit you with a serious topic, then by the time the next scene rolled around, you were having trouble containing your laughter.

Overall, it was definitely one of the better shows that I have seen. The scenes were engaging and thought- provoking and the cast knew how to exploit that.

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