In the Next Room, or the vibrator play

In the 19th century, it was common among doctors to diagnose women with hysteria, literally an illness of the uterus, signified by anxiety, irritability, loss of appetite and, more pointedly, erotic fantasies, weepiness, an urge to masterbate, and so on. In short, the lack of knowledge about or interest in women's sexual health created a category of women's complaints that distressed especially the male population because it was such a female thing and female things were . . . mysterious and distasteful. In the glow of Edison's new technology--the light bulb--a new treatment was developed for these maladies: an electric device strategically applied to produce restorative "paroxysms." It is just this subject that ACT Theater's production of the Pulitzer-finalist In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is all about.

Catherine Givings is a new mother dealing with the need for a wet nurse, as she is unable to adequately nurse her baby. Her husband is a doctor who, with the help of an all-business nurse, helps women with their hysteria via the use of . . . let's call it vibration technology; when the technology fails, the nurse Annie goes to work with . . . um . . . a hands-on approach. As the play proceeds, it becomes clear that Dr. Givings goes about his business with scientific detachment and is unaware of his wife's motherly distress, loneliness, and sexual dissatisfaction--ah, the irony. Amidst a colorful clientele and with the added poignancy of Catherine's relationship with the wet nurse, marital relations and social norms are examined pretty thoroughly.

The subject is ripe for humor, and Sarah Ruhl, the playwright, brings it on with a refreshing frankness. At the same time, she doesn't flinch from the tough stuff--how isolating women's lives of the era could be, how prejudice continued to shape social norms nearly 30 years after the Civil War, and how the simultaneous Victorian-era fascination with sex and its squeamishness about it created gulfs between spouses. The script is rich and multi-layered, and well performed by ACT's cast.

I was especially impressed by the performances of Mary Kae Irvin, who played the nurse, Annie, with a butch stoicism and a tender vulnerability, and Tracy Michelle Hughes, who played the wet nurse, Elizabeth, with a wonderful dignity and the grief of a woman who has lost a child but still has milk and love to give. The principals were also very good, but these two women really stood out for me, giving nuanced performances with relatively little text to work from. Elizabeth has a monologue in the second act that any actress would kill to do, and she plays it so beautifully that I think she got a bigger ovation than almost anyone else when it was time for bows. She earned it.

All in all, it was an excellent evening, and a great girl's night out for ironymaiden and myself. We had a light dinner beforehand--happy hour at Von's--and then the play.

In a delightful turn, Babeland sponsored a display of antique vibration technology in the lobby of the theater so that audience members could get a firsthand look at some of the equipment of the era and later. They know something about the history and were clearly enthusiastic about sharing.

Overall, it was a perfectly entertaining evening.