In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play June 15, 2011

Following a hugely successful run earlier this year, Sarah Ruhl’s acclaimed Broadway comedy In The Next Room or the vibrator play opens at Riverside Theatres on Wednesday, 15 June and is running to Saturday, 18 June allowing theatre lovers who missed this award winning show to see it.

Pamela Rabe directs Jacqueline McKenzie as Catherine Givings, an 1880’s woman whose
husband Dr Givings, played by David Roberts, marvels at the effectiveness of a newfangled electric invention he uses to administer remedial treatment to women suffering from ‘hysteria’.

“Audiences loved the wonderful blend of humour and humility of In the Next Room earlier this year. This award-winning show is not to be missed and combines the talents of a brilliant cast with superb writing from Sarah Ruhl under the direction of the wonderful Pamela Rabe,” said Director of Riverside Theatres, Robert Love.

With a sumptuous period setting, the play is based on the fact that doctors in the Victorian era used vibrators to treat ‘hysterical’ women. Unable to breastfeed her baby, excluded from her husband’s world and feeling desperately lonely, Catherine seeks companionship with two of the patients her husband has been treating with the new device in the adjoining room and begins to discover the truth of what goes on behind the closed door.

Both a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a 2010 Tony Nominee for Best Play, this beguiling comedy about love, longing, invention and equality, was a resounding hit when it opened on Broadway last year.

Pamela Rabe, well known to audiences for her standout STC performances including as
Richard III in The War of the Roses and Nora in The Season at Sarsaparilla has twice
directed for Sydney Theatre Company. In 2009 she directed the touching comedy Elling by Simon Bent and in 2008 directed the taut Citizens, part of a double bill by Daniel Keene.

The success of In The Next Room or the vibrator play has consolidated Sarah Ruhl’s reputation as one of America’s most exciting contemporary writers. Her other plays include The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005); Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American Award), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play) and Eurydice.