London.
IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY
by Sarah Ruhl.
St James Theatre 12 Palace Street SW1E 5JA To 4 January 2014.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm except 31 Dec 5pm, 3 Jan Mat Tue & Sat 3.45pm; 2pm 31 Dec, 3 Jan; 4pm 23, 27, 30 Dec.
no performance 9, 24, 25 Dec, 1 Jan.
Runs: 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 264 2140.
www.stjamestheatre.co.uk
Review: Carole Woddis 26 November.
Comedy of sexual electricity with a strong charge.
Somebody is doing some clever programming at St James. Here’s another terrific transfer, from Bath’s Theatre Royal.
American plays don’t always travel well, even Tony award nominees and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room however, in Laurence Boswell’s production, is delicious – witty, imaginatively framing present day attitudes to sex within the historical context of a century ago.
It’s lovely to see someone taking-off on such a flight of costume drama fancy at a time when we seem obsessed with short-term historical perspectives.
Looking back to reveal how we are now, Ruhl takes Thomas Edison’s discovery of electricity together with documented accounts of `hysteria’ being `cured’ by electrically-induced `paroxysms’ to create a bravura comedy entailing the enactment of simulated orgasms (male and female), all the while as if being conducted in a scientific experiment by the strait-laced, aptly named doctor, Givings.
As Dr Givings’ patient, Sabrina Daldry, Flora Montgomery is called upon to reach pitches of delight as he administers `the machine’ to her nether regions; which she achieves with mesmerising distinction. Such, however, is the delicacy and wit of Ruhl’s script and Boswell’s scrupulous direction on Simon Kenny’s attractive two-tier period set, the episodes remain amusing and wholly inoffensive.
That’s because Ruhl’s comic intentions are so subtly intertwined with a serious exploration of medical hypocrisy, male attitudes and most of all, love, that laughter frequently comes mixed with heart-clutching pathos.
Mrs Daldry’s delight is contrasted with Dr Givings’ own wife, Catherine. Unable to feed her new-born baby, isolated by her husband’s aloof proprieties and aware of currents in the other room she suspects but as yet cannot fully articulate as to their significance, her situation grows increasingly desperate.
It’s wonderful to watch how Ruhl explores the predicament of women as mothers, wives, unmarried `spinsters’ and, quite beautifully, class and race through the black wet-nurse appointed to the Givings, Elizabeth (Madeline Appiah, touching and restrained).
The performances are uniformly excellent, from Natalie Casey’s hyper-ventilating Catherine to Jason Hughes stuff-shirted doctor, finally naked in the snow engulfed by his ecstatically liberated wife. Simply gorgeous.
Catherine Givings: Natalie Casey.
Dr Givings: Jason Hughes.
Annie: Sarah Woodward.
Mr Daldry: Owen Oakeshott.
Sabrina Daldry: Flora Montgomery.
Elizabeth: Madeline Appiah.
Leo Irving: Edward Bennett.
Director: Laurence Boswell.
Designer: Simon Kenny.
Lighting: Ben Ormerod.
Sound: Fergus O’Hare.
Composer: Jon Nicholls.
Dialect coach: Elspeth Morrison.
Assistant director: Jessica Edwards.
Associate designer: Maira Vazeou.
Associate lighting: Anthony Arblaster.
Produced by Peter Huntley and Just for Laughs Theatricals with Glass Half Full Productions and Ricardo Hornos in association with Theatre Royal Bath.
First performance of this production at St James Theatre 13 November 2013.
First staged in 2012 at the Ustinov StudioTheatre Royal Bath.
Original Broadway production at Lincoln Center New York 2009.
Original commission by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and developed by New Dramatists.
2013-11-26 20:38:49
