In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play

Location Info

Map

ACT Theatre

700 Union St.
Seattle, WA 98101

Category: Theaters

Region: Downtown

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare	0

Related Content

• Opening Nights: In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play
  August 10, 2011
• The Pitmen Painters
  May 2, 2012
• Arms and the Man
  May 25, 2011
• The Weekly Wire: The Week's Recommended Events
  July 27, 2011
• Opening Nights: The Pitmen Painters
  May 2, 2012

More About

• Kurt Beattie
• Catherine Givings
• Margaret Friedman
• Sarah Ruhl
• Jennifer Sue Johnson

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The discovery in the late 1800s of how to harness electrical energy through a circuit bore curious fruit in our uptight culture. A new vibrating machine could supposedly cure "hysteria," the ancient, inherited term for all manner of female ills. Sarah Ruhl's 2009 comedy, directed with gentle wit by Kurt Beattie, pits the doctor's simple on/off stimulation against the physiological complexities of the patient. Soon after giving birth in upstate New York, the vivacious Catherine Givings (Jennifer Sue Johnson) is flickering between forced cheer and despair over her inability to provide milk for her baby. Her prim, inattentive husband Dr. Givings (Jeff Cummings) is too busy vibrating other men's wives free of their hysteria to notice his own wife's misery. Overhearing an ecstatic patient inspires Catherine's curiosity about this new treatment for inducing "paroxysms." What the play lacks in narrative oomph is made up for in a cascade of intriguing eddies that spin out in the several unwalled “rooms” of Matt Smucker’s sparely suggestive set. Beattie and his able cast know how to shift gears smoothly among Ruhl’s hodgepodge of tones—sometimes comic, sometimes somber, sometimes anguished. At two and a half hours (including intermission), there’s a languor to the sprawl, but also plenty of titillating tremors to maintain engagement. MARGARET FRIEDMAN
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: July 29. Continues through Aug. 28, 2011