Reviewed by James Karas
First the facts: In 1880 Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the vibrator. Please stay focused. The electro-mechanical device was intended for purely therapeutic purposes, i.e. the treatment of hysteria and not for what some of you surmised.
American playwright Sarah Ruhl has written a play about the use of the vibrator as a medical device in late 19th century America and it has received its Canadian premiere at the Tarragon Theatre. In case my syntax has become unsteady because of the subject rather than my ignorance of grammar, let me make it perfectly clear that the play and not the vibrator had its premiere. The Tarragon Theatre is innovative, but not that innovative.
Let me state at the outset that In the Next Room or the vibrator play is probably not as bad a play as this production makes it look. Let’s just say that whatever qualities the play possesses, they remain well hidden.
Dr. Givings (David Storch) and his wife Catherine (Trish Lindstrom) have just had a baby and they are showing all the parenting skills of two idiots living under a bridge in the Don Valley. We are in their living room but “in the next room” Dr. Givings practices medicine.
Mr. and Mrs. Daldry arrive (Ross McMillan and Melody A. Johnson) seeking medical attention. Mrs. Daldry is suffering from a congestion of the womb or some such malady which is called hysteria and the mode of treatment is the use of the newly-invented vibrator.
The device is applied in a very professional and antiseptic way by the good doctor and his assistant Annie (Elizabeth Saunders.) Guess what? Mrs. Daldry has an immediate “paroxysm” and she feels much better. She comes back again and again for more treatments.
An artist named Leo (Jonathan Irving) who seems to be suffering from painter’s block is also diagnosed with hysteria and he is treated with the new and improved Chattanooga Vibrator that is inserted up his rectum.
Next thing you know Mrs. Givings wants a bit of action as does Annie. Annie, let it be known, knows Ancient Greek and she acts as an alternate to the electrical vibrator during power failures. Somehow she seems to come to the realization that she is attracted to women.
Dr. Givings is a dunce who believes that he is a scientist. His wife is an idiot (there is a subplot about her baby and a black wet nurse played by Marci T. House). Yes, there was suppression in the 19th century and sex for some woman may have been no more than “I close my eyes, open my legs and think of England” but people were not that stupid.
I could not tell from the production if the play is meant to be a Pythonesque send-up of 19th century prudery and sexual idiocy or a sober presentation of the subject. Do these people realize that they were getting sexual pleasure plain and simple from the vibrator and curing some phantom ailment? In a very sloppy ending, Dr. and Mrs. Givings do find out that sex can be enjoyable.
Director Richard Rose, as I said, does not help the play. David Storch is made to look even more foolish than the script calls for and he appears like an ineffectual poseur who knows and understands nothing. His assistant Annie masturbates women and she is getting some sexual pleasure out if it but does she not realize it?
Lindstrom’s Catherine and Johnson’s Daldry are sexually suppressed to the point of stupidity and even after repeated orgasms the latter does not quite connect unalloyed sexual pleasure with the “medical treatments.”
Marci T. House plays the wet nurse who lost her son and has to give her milk to another child with humanity and grace and she is a good change from the rest.
Leo is a stock artist-type with a bad English accent who overacts and adds little to the play. He, like the women, is capable of achieving orgasm in about five seconds after coming into contact with the vibrator. It must have been one hell of a gizmo.
I wish I could say the same about the production.
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In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl opened on September 21 and will run until October 23, 2011 at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario. www.tarragontheatre.com
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