11 Chinatown: The Vibrator Play

So, this post is unbelievably late, and for that I apologize.

"In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play" was actually extended at Woolly Mammoth, and closed a couple of weekends ago. So while reading this might not serve as a review of a show you might see, hopefully it will give you an idea of what Woolly has in store for its audiences, this season.

The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl, kicks of a season intended to provide a "striptease of the subconscious". The essence of the season is to be "a focused and poignant exploration of our attitudes toward gender, age, race, and sexuality in a manner that's uniquely Woolly". I could try to sum up the piece, by Woolly's synopsis will do just fine:

"At the dawn of the electrical age, a new medical device is developed to pacify “hysterical” women, but it produces a shockingly different result. Pulitzer Prize-finalist Sarah Ruhl, creator of Dead Man’s Cell Phone and The Clean House, returns with a richly textured comedy about marriage, motherhood, and the charged energy between our bodies"

Now, Woolly is by far one of my favorite theatre companies. Part of what I love (and this is the Arts Management lens coming in) is their mission:

. . . to ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community by developing, producing, and promoting new plays that explore the edges of theatrical style and human experience, and by implementing new ways to use the artistry of theatre to serve the people of Greater Washington, DC.

LOVE IT!!

And I definitely believe that's what they're continuing to do, and have done with this show.

Walking in, the set is definitely interesting, with some heavy duty medical lights hanging from the ceiling, as if saying that the stage is this giant operating table, yet the bulk of the scenic design incorporating wood, from walls to furniture. And just to add the audience into the mix, a viewing gallery of sorts, serves as the second floor of the house on stage.

Although the title of the piece is "In the Next Room", the only thing separating the living room from the...'operating' room is a door and its frame, which provides for some very interesting scenes with action and dialogue occurring in both rooms simultaneously.

The highlight of the play for me is the dialogue between two women, the doctor's first patient and the doctor's wife, when describing the completely different experiences each had upon treatment of the device. The insightful yet hilarious writing is the essence of what really drives the first act.

The second act, is less entertaining, which isn't to say it is less artful. It leaves the lofty and light-hearted canopy of the subject matter addressed in the beginning, and becomes mired in the weeds, trying to make philosophical and logical sense of emotional and sexual well-being and health.

Some of the musings it left me with were as universal and general as people not wanting to be alone, but then as personal as what do individuals look to for companionship.

All-in-all, a worthwhile evening, and a great start to an exciting season.