In The Next Room, Or, The Vibrator Play
by Sarah Ruhl

Name: In The Next Room, Or, The Vibrator Play
Brand: Sarah Ruhl
SKU: 9780573698132
Rating: 4.5 (3574 reviews)

Broadway

In The Next Room, Or, The Vibrator Play Cover

In The Next Room, Or, The Vibrator Play Book Cover — In The Next Room, Or, The Vibrator Play Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

120 minsVictorian (British and American)Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)Interior SetPeriod CostumesAmerican Historical Comedy

Awards & Recognition

Pulitzer PrizeTony Award

Finalist: 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Drama Nominee: Three 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Play Winner! 2010 Will Glickman Award for Best New Play to Premiere in the Bay Area Sarah Ruhl is the 2003 recipient of the Whiting Award for Drama

What readers are saying

Readers appreciate the depth and humor of the play, highlighting its exploration of intimacy and the historical context surrounding women's sexuality. Many find the characters relatable and the writing beautifully crafted, making it a joy to watch on stage. The play prompts discussions about human interaction and personal connections amid societal norms of the time.

Deep and relatable charactersWitty and funny dialogueBeautifully writtenInsightful exploration of intimacyBetter to watch than to read

Synopsis

“A fascinating, funny and evocative play.

Ruhl develops the story with the enticing blend of irreverent humor and skewed realism.

It’s beautiful.”

–

San Francisco Chronicle

“[This] breathtakingly inventive addition to Ruhl’s singular body of work .

has the potential to be a modern masterpiece.”–

Los Angeles Times

Sarah Ruhl made her Broadway debut this fall with her latest effervescent comedy: a play about sex, intimacy, and equality, set in the 1880s, when enthusiasm for the electric light bulb gave rise to a handy new instrument to treat female hysteria.

The story revolves around the medical office and home of Dr. Givings, who regularly induces “paroxysm” in his once high-strung patient Sabrina, allowing her to happily return to playing piano.

Soon, Sabrina falls in love with the doctor’s assistant Annie, and also befriends his wife Catherine, who is dealing with her own neurotic misgivings about not being able to breast-feed her baby.

With this new work, Ruhl once again uses playful symbolism and lyrical language as she makes seemingly effortless thematic leaps—crafting a play with tremendous critical and audience appeal, in her singular theatrical voice.

Sarah Ruhl

’s plays include Dead Man’s Cell Phone

, The Clean House (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), Passion Play

, and Eurydice

, all of which have been widely produced throughout the United States and internationally.

She is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Press Reviews

"Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling… one of the most gifted and adventurous American playwrights to emerge in recent years… In the Next Room is a true novelty: a sex comedy designed not for sniggering teenage boys – or grown men who wish they were still sniggering teenage boys – but for adults with open hearts and minds."
— The New York Times

"If Henrik Ibsen and Oscar Wilde had decided to collaborate on a post-modern drawing-room comedy, the hotsy-totsy twosome surely would have turned out something very much like Sarah Ruhl’s genuinely hysterical new work."
— TheatreMania

"Sarah Ruhl… has written a smart, charming, iridescently funny-serious jewel… As Ruhl traces it with wit and insight, and without the slightest prurience, the birth of this new era gives rise to colorful events, astute psychological revelations and endearingly apt dialogue."
— Bloomberg

"The playwright mines her subject for suitably bawdy humor without resorting to vulgarity. But what really gives the work its distinction is its sensitive exploration of the physical and emotional repression suffered by the women of the era, which has yet to disappear entirely… The play beautifully balances its humor and pathos."
— Hollywood Reporter

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Catherine Givings His wife, a woman in her late twenties.	female	—	His wife, a woman in her late twenties.
Sabrina Daldry His patient, a woman in her early thirties.	female	—	His patient, a woman in her early thirties.
Annie A woman in her late thirties, Dr. Giving’s midwife assistant.	female	—	A woman in her late thirties, Dr. Giving’s midwife assistant.
Leo Irving Dr. Giving’s other patient, an Englishman in his twenties or thirties.	male	—	Dr. Giving’s other patient, an Englishman in his twenties or thirties.
Elizabeth An African American woman in her early thirties. A wet-nurse by default.	female	—	An African American woman in her early thirties. A wet-nurse by default.
Mr. Daldry Sabrina Daldry’s husband, a man in his forties or fifties.	male	—	Sabrina Daldry’s husband, a man in his forties or fifties.
Dr. Givings A man in his forties, a specialist in gynecological and hysterical disorders.	male	—	A man in his forties, a specialist in gynecological and hysterical disorders.