[NEohioPAL] Review of Cleveland Play House's "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play"

[Bob Abelman]

'In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play' is a quirky coming of age comedy

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 4/20/12

 

"In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play," currently on stage at the Cleveland Play House, is about what you think it's about.  But while the title suggests a silly sex farce, insight into the playwright reveals a more intellectually stimulating form of entertainment.

 

Sarah Ruhl is among the most acclaimed and accomplished young playwrights on the contemporary theater scene and, while far from formulaic or predictable, there are certainly Ruhl Rules that constitute a signature style in her work.

 

Most of her plays are smart, quirky comedies that tend to call attention to taken-for-granted phenomena and reveal their hidden significance.  In "Dog Play," for example, a pet gets us to look at death from a unique perspective. 

 

The Tony and Pulitzer nominated "In the Next Room" sheds light on the divide between women's lives and men's perceptions of them by examining the transformative power of electricity in the late 19th century.  It takes place in a physician's home office in New York, where Dr. Givings (Jeremiah Wiggins) specializes in relieving "hysteria" in nervous women with an application of a new electronic-powered invention to the nether-region to the point of "paroxysm."  The symptom rather than the true cause of what ails these women-which is Victorian era neglect from their emotionally and physically distant husbands-is addressed and resolved in an efficient three-to-five minutes.

 

Many of Ruhl's works feature lost women who, in the course of the play, find themselves through modern technology.  In "Dead Man's Cell Phone," a young woman so profoundly unassuming that she nearly collapses in on herself finds a dead man's cell phone and reinvents herself with each incoming call.  

 

In "In the Next Room," Dr. Givings' wife Catherine (Nisi Sturgis) has not yet found her voice despite the tendency to speak her mind.  Sleep walking through the roles of good wife and nurturing mother, she and the other lonely and incomplete women in this play (Gail Rastorfer and Birgit Huppuch) discover their true selves when they discover the non-medicinal uses of the technology locked away "in the next room."  

 

All of Ruhl's works are written with purposeful, crystalline language and vibrant emotionalism, even when spoken by a fish and caper ("Passion Play") or a stone ("Eurydice").  "In the Next Room" is no exception.  "Everyone has a great, horrible opera inside him," she noted in a recent interview in The New Yorker magazine, and her plays are full of similarly dramatic, bold and stylized expression, and are longer than they need to be.   

 

Her plays are also thoroughly engaging, theatrically adventurous journeys that take unexpected turns.  In this play, this is presented through a male patient (Zac Hoogendyk) for Dr. Givings, the advances of a randy husband (Donald Cararier) for Catherine, and an enlightened wet nurse (Rachel Leslie) for their newborn (Hasbro).

 

Director Laura Kepley handles this and all other aspects of this CPH production with incredible charm and wit.  She and her team understand, appreciate and bring to life with incredible attention to detail Ruhl's unique brand of storytelling.

 

In particular, Ruhl's purposeful placement of a sexually charged theme amidst Victorian era etiquette is beautifully embellished by David Kay Michelsen's alluring yet impenetrable wardrobe and Michael B. Raiford's plush yet formal scenic design.  The set is layered with turn-of-the-century trimmings-solid period furniture and glass lamps, decorative wallpaper and drapes, and meticulous woodwork-and all of it presented in intimate proximity to the surrounding audience.  

 

Everything on the stage is interesting, not the least of which is the talented, risk-taking ensemble of actors.  Their greatest risk, and that of the entire production team, comes at the end of the play, during Ruhl's patented tendency to put a metaphysical twist on the story's resolution.  

 

Further detail would ruin the moment for those who have not yet seen the play, but one could easily imagine the original title being "The Iceman Cometh" if not already taken.   Suffice it to say that some will find the scene exhilarating, others will find it extraneous, but no one will ever look at a snow angel in quite the same way ever again.

 

"In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play" continues through May 13 in Cleveland Play House's Second Stage Theatre at PlayhouseSquare.  For tickets, which range from $49 to $69, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.   
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