Zane Williams
Karen Moeller and Jessica Bess Lanius in Forward Theater Company's In the Next Room, or the vibrator play.
At the very beginning of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), the electric lights in an upper-class, 1880s home gracefully switch on and off by themselves. No one is on stage yet, making the brief moments of light in the darkened theater both cozy and eerie.
Those electric lamps, made possible by Thomas Edison, shed a radiant light. But, as we soon learn, electricity and science alone cannot produce illumination. For that, humans -- and not just circuitry -- must dare to connect.
In the Next Room, the kickoff to the second season of Forward Theater Company, marks the second time the company has brought new work by a major national playwright to Madison shortly after its coastal debut, after last season's Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.
Nominated in 2010 for both a Best Play Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Ruhl's play is a captivating mix of comedy and more serious themes. It takes place in an era when "hysteria" is still a catch-all diagnosis for host of female problems: anxiety, insomnia, lack of appetite and more.
In order to release supposed congestion in the womb, doctors sometimes offered the "treatment" of orgasm, either through manual means or, in the burgeoning age of electricity, vibrators.
All this might induce a few Beavis and Butthead-like chuckles, and, indeed, Ruhl's play gets plenty of laughs. The play's central couple, Dr. and Mrs. Givings (Mark Ulrich and Jessica Bess Lanius), seem mismatched. He's an egg-headed physician, she a vivacious but bored young wife. When Mrs. Givings pleads to see the machine in her husband's home office -- the machine with which he gives his orgasmic "treatments" -- Dr. Givings replies, "Leave me my dry, boring science."
It's one of the remarkable things about the play, though, that Dr. Givings seems genuinely blind to the sexual aspect of his methods. As the good doctor, Ulrich hits just the right spot: relentlessly logical, a touch paternalistic, yet not unkind. In this play about disconnection from one's own body, he, too, suffers.
Mrs. Givings is a woman who seemingly has it all, 1880s-style (successful husband, beautiful home, new baby), but whose despair is masked by her cheery demeanor and gorgeous dresses. Unable to provide enough milk for her baby, she must reluctantly hire African-American wet nurse Elizabeth (Marti Gobel). And she's so desperate for human contact, she's forever striking up conversations with her husband's patients.
Despite the period setting, Ruhl's play, with its forthright dialogue and themes of sexuality, gender, race and class, feels wholly contemporary -- and that's just fine. Ruhl, still in her 30s, is fresh voice offering both wit and tenderness.
And, frankly, it's heartening to see a woman playwright's work on a local, professional stage -- especially in light of American Players Theatre's recently announced 2011 schedule, which includes no women playwrights (whereas the 2010 season included two).
As helmed by Forward artistic director Jennifer Uphoff Gray, this is a handsome, smart and well-acted production. Frank Schneeberger's scenic design is clever and attractive, and Scott A. Rött's costumes are sumptuous. The strong ensemble includes Forward veterans Leia Espericueta, Richard Ganoung and Karen Moeller.
While its subject matter may be slightly risqué, Room is ultimately poignant and funny, a winning start to Forward's new season.
