Review: (Ottawa) In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play

l-r Michelle LeBlanc, Sarah Finn and David Whiteley, photo by Andrew Alexander

The Next Room (The Vibrator Play) Humms Along

by Jim Murchison

There are lots of opportunities for cheap jokes in a review about a play called The Vibrator Play. I will avoid overdoing it, but I am only human. 

First let’s get right to the point. Bronwyn Steinberg has done a wonderful job of directing and the cast make sure that the story confidently humms along. There will very probably be a good buzz about this very well performed production.

Sarah Ruhl has written a very funny play set near New York City in the 1880’s. Electricity is an infant and the full benefits of it have yet to be realized. The medical community and, in this play, a particular doctor by the appropriate name of Dr Givings are treating female hysteria with a device used to stimulate to the point of achieving hysterical paroxysm. While 21st century audiences will recognize the euphemism for orgasm, this is not a word that is ever uttered in the play.


What the period most admired of men of the day was steadiness and decorum after all.

The players in this piece are uniformly fine but I particularly enjoyed Sascha Cole as Sarah Givings, Dr Givings long-suffering wife. There was vibrancy and directness to the character captured so perfectly that it was impossible not to grin broadly or outright laugh just at the exuberance of the performance. The same could be said of Sarah Finn’s Sabrina Daldrey who had some outlandishly funny moments. Neither actress was in any way one dimensional and squeezed both the glee of discovery in some moments and the pathos of their Victorian restraint at others.

@JimMurchison

Michelle Leblanc as Dr Giving’s assistant and Dilys Ayafor as the wet nurse Elizabeth had well-nuanced characters very well played. The men played by David Whitely as Givings, David Frisch as Mr Daldrey and Robin Toller as Leo Irving were all effective foils with there uptight, patriarchal thickness. Only Toller’s Leo had much of a public soul to reveal but then Leo is an artist. (What the period most admired of men of the day was steadiness and decorum after all.)   

Patrice Ann Forbes costumes and Nancy Solman’s set finished what was a wonderfully performed and staged work by Same Day Theatre. All in all this is just some good clean fun despite what the wagging tongues of the gossip mongers might tell you.

  

runtime: approximately 2 hours 20 minutes with one intermission
The Next Room runs until June 1st