Tonight, the Penn Theatre Arts Program will open its production of “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)” at 7 p.m. in the Annenberg Center’s Montgomery Theatre.
The play — which tracks the introduction of the vibrator as a therapeutic tool in Victorian-era New York — is directed by TAP Chair James Schlatter and will feature seven Penn student actors.
The DP recently sat down with Schlatter to discuss why the program chose to produce this play and what he hopes Penn audiences can take away from it.
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The Daily Pennsylvanian: Could you briefly introduce the story?
James Schlatter: This is a fascinating play written by Sarah Ruhl, a contemporary American playwright. It is about the introduction of the vibrator to American medical culture in the 1880s, and specifically how it “cures” women suffering from psychological [and] sexual disorders.
The play basically tells a story about the relationship between a married couple, people they get to know and their friendships — all from the perspective of this brand new revolutionary technique and its impact on everybody’s life, about their love life and their relationships between each other.
The play is also very much about America entering a whole new age in the 1880s, because the vibrator is all about electricity … It’s also about American’s therapeutic culture.
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DP: Why did you choose this play and how is it relevant to the Penn community?
JS: One thing I look for in plays is the deep relationships between characters, whether it is love or friendship. The play is moving forward by these relationships. The whole play hinges on what would happen to the love relationship between Dr. Givings, the pioneer for using vibrators for therapeutic reasons, and his wife, who is coming to learn that what’s “down there” can only be meaningful when related to what’s “up here” — which is mind, soul and heart. She is the one who discovers the relationship between sexuality, orgasm and love. These are wonderful roles for young actors to work on. Each role is very rich and complex.
It is also for the Penn community. It addresses a very important issue for young people about the relationship between sexuality and intimacy. Some modern students feel that those things should be separated, especially at the university level. It’s easier if you separate those and you can have a fulfilled sexual, erotic life without having to get all complicated … I think what the play does is to complicate that issue.
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DP: What is the most difficult part for the actors and actresses in the play?
JS: The entire subject of the play is pretty intimate for bringing in seven actors and actresses, some of whom knew each other and some didn’t, and we immediately started to talk about orgasm. I have to say that the actors have responded with great courage and sensitivity. Some of the women in the play, and one of the men actually, have to experience paroxysm — basically orgasm — on stage, in the operation room. They have to create believable representations of orgasm …
But I want the audience to feel that these characters are having very profound experiences on stage. Not just discovering orgasm, they are discovering their bodies and beings. Especially for the women, the paroxysm is not a typical orgasm. They become more alive in the world. It also makes them more open to each othe …
What the play is exploring in a very beautiful way is that it is women’s whole emotional and mental relationship with the man she loves that makes the relationship a real bond and endurable for family life and their life together.
