The dawn of the age of electricity shed light on the dark, mysterious and little-understood science of female sexuality and the role it plays in women’s well-being and self–esteem.
The invention of the vibrator, powered by electricity, and how it was utilized successfully by physicians to treat women for hysteria in the late 19th century serves as the jumping off point for Sarah Ruhl’s play,“In the Next Room, or the vibrator play.”
New Surry Theatre’s production of the show on the stage in the Blue Hill Town Hall is tastefully daring, delightfully funny and thought-provoking. Director Bec Poole uses her cast well and moves the action along nicely.
Ruhl layered her script with more than just the power of the female orgasm to cure. It also speaks to how love enhances sexual experiences, about the difficulties of motherhood and the loss of children at that time and how the sexual mores of the Victorian Age inhibited men and women from sexual fulfillment.
Poole expertly lets those themes bubble to the surface in this complex and rewarding production.
“In the Next Room” is about a physician who treats women and men in the late 19th century who suffer from hysteria. People with the same symptoms today most likely would be diagnosed with some form of depression.
Dr. Givings (Nathanael Lee) and his nurse Annie (Nina Lee) use the newly invented vibrator to induce a “paroxysm,” a now-discarded term for a sexual climax, to treat patients. His treatment room is in his home, which was not unusual in the 1880s, and his patients include Sabrina Daldry (Claire Daniel), who is accompanied by her husband, Mr. Daldry (Michael McFarland), and artist Leo Irving (David Lane).
The doctor’s wife, Catherine Givings (Vanessa Hawkins), recently gave birth to a daughter but she is not able to provide enough milk for the child. A wet nurse, Elizabeth (Jamie Bracy), whose child recently died, is hired to feed the baby girl until she is healthy and old enough to digest cow’s milk from a bottle.
Much of the humor in the show comes from Catherine’s keen interest in the sounds coming from her husband’s office when he administers treatments and her determination to try out the device on herself.
Hawkins is the spark that lights up this stage as the doctor’s bride. Her Catherine is vivacious and effervescent, full of curiosity and eager to experience new things. The actress also painfully conveys how inadequate Catherine feels about not being able to adequately feed her baby and the empathy she shows Elizabeth over the loss of the wet nurse’s son to cholera. Hawkins is simply delightful in the role.
As Dr. Givings, Nathanael Lee gives the man of science a detachment that is admirable in his interactions with patients, but not helpful in dealing with his wife. The actor reveals tiny glimpses of the passion he feels for Catherine until the final scene when he shows his love for his wife like a flower bursting into bloom.
It is a difficult role that requires an actor to walk a kind of emotional tightrope and Nathanael Lee does so beautifully and expertly.
As Mrs. Daldry, Daniel can be a bit stilted at times, but she carries the woman’s hysteria like a weight on her shoulders that lifts further with every treatment.
In action and in words, the actress beautifully conveys how little society valued women other than as bearers of children in the late 19th century and the harmful impact that could have on their mental health. She expertly portrays how freeing “paroxysms” could be for women.
The rest of the cast is equally fine with Lane standing out in his portrayal of an artist unable to paint after the loss of a love interest. His speech denouncing sex without love is touchingly powerful.
The set, designed by Poole and decorated by Randall Simons, along with Elena Bourakovsky’s costumes, especially those Victorian-era undergarments, help illustrate how constrained society was at that time.
The production team and the cast artfully and honestly bring Ruhl’s provocative story to life. It is a theatrical experience not to be missed.
While the play illuminates a brief period of history well, doctors treating patients with vibrators in their offices fell by the wayside as more and more homes were wired for electricity.
“By the turn of the century, needlework catalogs advertised models for women who wanted to try the treatment at home, making the vibrator the fifth electric appliance to arrive in the home — after the sewing machine, the fan, the teakettle and the toaster,” a Scientific American article said in 2009, the year Ruhl’s play premiered on Broadway.
“In the Next Room, or the vibrator play” will be performed at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Feb. 4 and at 3 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Blue Hill Town Hall Theater, 18 Union St. For tickets, visit www.newsurrytheatre.org or call 207-200-4720.