Shocking acts are being performed onstage at Perseverance Theatre, complete with electronic devices and screaming orgasms.<\/p>\n
However, before the perverts and protestors descend upon Douglas Island I should clarify: These encounters aren\u2019t erotic; they\u2019re therapeutic. The implements are wielded by a medical professional, the moaning convulsions simply part of the treatment \u2013 at least that\u2019s what doctor and patient believe. In fact, sexual pleasure \u2014 particularly female sexual pleasure \u2014 is so removed from the minds of those involved, they don\u2019t even recognize it taking place in the next room. Literally.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the nut of Sarah Ruhl\u2019s comedy \u201cIn the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play),\u201d which runs through April 2 at Perseverance\u2014the disconnect between the characters\u2019 and audience\u2019s notions about what, exactly, that strange buzzing wand is and how its magic should be applied.<\/p>\n
Set in the 1880s, right after the advent of electricity, \u201cIn the Next Room\u201d explores the historically documented practice of treating \u201chysteria\u201d in women by inducing \u201cparoxysms\u201d via \u201cvulvular massage,\u201d either manually or with the latest breakthrough in medical technology: the vibrator.<\/p>\n
The play follows Dr. Givings (Torsten Hillhouse), a highly successful gentleman physician specializing in this treatment, and his wife Catherine (Christina Apathy), who grows ever more fascinated with \u2014 and distanced by \u2014 the curious doings in her husband\u2019s adjoining medical office.<\/p>\n
Dr. Givings\u2019s chair is entirely different than Sweeney Todd\u2019s, and his patients meet a far more pleasant end. Off go the corsets, up come the petticoats and on turns a Rube Goldberg contraption I can\u2019t believe any woman would allow beneath her pantaloons.<\/p>\n
And yet, women do. Early on, we meet new patient Mrs. Daldry (Margeaux Ljungberg), who exhibits all the classic \u201csymptoms\u201d of hysteria: headaches, sensitivity, weeping. Apprehensive at first, within moments she\u2019s, um, let\u2019s call it \u201csinging the body electric.\u201d That\u2019s nothing compared to the, er, \u201cepiphany\u201d experienced by rare male hysteria sufferer Leo Irving (Enrique Bravo), whose entire life changes the moment the doctor \u201cengages his prostate\u201d with a \u201cChattanooga vibrator,\u201d which kind of looks like a cappuccino machine with a phallic attachment.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, there\u2019s one woman Dr. Givings won\u2019t help. Trapped by Victorian-era convention and post-partum depression, Catherine Givings (Christina Apathy) doesn\u2019t understand what her husband is doing and why he won\u2019t do it to her.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a juicy premise from a comic standpoint; plenty of good humor in the treatment of \u201cill humors.\u201d But more serious ideas underpin \u201cIn the Next Room,\u201d with many modern echoes: repression, ignorance, blind embrace of technology and the subjugation of women by men. Breaking the confines of her gender, \u201cIn the Next Room\u201d is as much about sexual release and as it is about sexual release.<\/p>\n
Director Carolyn Howarth, whose Perseverance credits include \u201cVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike\u201d and \u201cThe Importance of Being Earnest,\u201d brings a keen awareness to a play in thought and feeling that goes beyond all the sex jokes. And both the stage and the characters are exquisitely dressed by lighting\/scenic designer Art Rotch and costume designer Clare Henkel.<\/p>\n
But the production\u2019s real strength lies in its cast.<\/p>\n
Torsten Hillhouse strikes a nearly perfect balance of kindness and confusion as the well-intentioned but grossly imperceptive Dr. Givings, businesslike and clinical, a man who continues to make inane small-talk even as his patients start to writhe.<\/p>\n
Margeaux Ljungberg\u2019s Mrs. Daldry bounces back and forth between stiff parochialism and unbridled passion. And she really delivers her \u201clines.\u201d (I\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having.)<\/p>\n
Perseverance actor-in-residence Enrique Bravo portrays Leo Irving with a histrionic swagger and fellow Perseverance actor-in-residence James Sullivan delivers laughs as the patriarchal and lovably self-centered Mr. Daldry\u2014\u201c thank you, Dr. Givings, you have no idea what source of anguish my wife\u2019s illness has been to me\u2026. and to her, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiffany Cooper brings a measured dignity to the role of Mrs. Givings\u2019 wet nurse Elizabeth, repressed as a woman as well as an African American barely two decades removed frm the Civil War. And Katie Jensen delivers a comically brisk performance as Dr. Givings\u2019s crisp but sympathetic midwife assistant Annie, who wound up in nursing because she\u2019s \u201c33, unmarried, and detests young children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cherry atop this sundae: Christina Apathy. Her Mrs. Givings is madcap impulsiveness bound in a corset, a modern woman trapped in history. With a tendency to speak her thoughts before she\u2019s fully thought them through, she seems more in touch with herself \u2014 no pun intended \u2014 than any other character in the play.<\/p>\n
Adding the development of multiple side plots, as well as lengthy discourses on topics such as scientific progress, artistic inspiration and ancient Greek scholarship, \u201cIn the Next Room\u201d feels a bit crowded at times, not to mention a little long. The second act veers into more typical Victorian drawing room fare, complete with intersecting love triangles, convenient entrances and exits and witty aphorisms (several at the expense of the French). And as the play wears on, the laughs grow increasingly sparse, disappearing entirely toward the end. Don\u2019t worry; I won\u2019t spoil it for you.<\/p>\n
But I will say this: Personally, I prefer my comedies to go out with a bang (okay, that pun was intended). Here, the jokes give way to a far more beautiful and moving finish. And sometimes, a beautiful and moving finish is just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shocking acts are being performed onstage at Perseverance Theatre, complete with electronic devices and screaming orgasms. However, before the perverts and protestors descend upon Douglas Island I should clarify: These encounters aren\u2019t erotic; they\u2019re therapeutic. The implements are wielded by a medical professional, the moaning convulsions simply part of the treatment \u2013 at least that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":17566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}