In the Next Room or
The Vibrator Play
By Sarah Ruhl
A Co-Production with Seattle Open Arts Place and Well-Behaved Women & Co.
About The Play...
Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity in a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating "hysteria" in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife Catherine tries to tend to their newborn daughter-and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new "hysterical" patient, Sabrina, and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.
This show contains some sexually explicit content.
Trigger Warning: Scenes in the show may discuss or depict the following: Racism, Discrimination, Sexual Assault, Child Loss.​
Setting & Characters
PERSONAGES
DR. GIVINGs, a man in his thirties, a specialist in gynecological and hysterical disorders.
CATHERINE GIVINGs, his wife, a woman in her late twenties.
SABRINA DALDRY, his patient, a woman in her early thirties.
MR. DALDRY, Sabrina Daldry's husband, a man in his forties or fifties.
ANNIE, a woman in her late thirties, Dr. Givings's midwife assistant.
ELIZABETH, an African-American woman in her early thirties, a wet nurse by default.
LEO IRVING, Dr. Giving's other patient, an Englishman in his twenties or thirties.
PLACE​
A prosperous spa town outside ofNew York City, perhaps Saratoga Springs.
TIME​
The dawn of the age of electricity; and after the Civil War; circa 1880s.
Production Team
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Cast
In Order of Appearance
