Good vibrations at the State Theatre Company of SA

In 2010 playwright Sarah Ruhl’s IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony award. The play is a comedy of manners set in the rooms of a Dr. Givings in 19^th Century America: a sexual romp in the tradition of Joe Orton and/or the Carry On movies.

Naturally, it’s all about sex and sexuality, sexual repression, oppression and liberation, sexual discovery and desire and the nature and treatment of sexual “disorder”.

Thanks to the inventor Mr. Thomas Edison, the Givings household enjoys all the benefits of the recently supplied electricity. The good doctor invents his vibrator; a device to cure “hysteria” – a condition we might call neurosis or anxiety today.

Ruhl writes into her script many other themes – jealousy, unrequited love, the role of women in society, class exploitation and tragedy – in a manner which makes this play as simple or as sophisticated as any individual audience member is able to engage with.

Catherine Fitzgerald expertly directs this production and has cast the play perfectly. Renato Musolino as Dr. Givings is a veritable paragon of a Victorian era doctor; his character’s sense of moral restraint is tangible. Amber McMahon as Catherine Givings is poignant and funny as the doctor’s

sexually and emotionally yearning wife. Lizzy Falkland delivers a precise performance in her role as the doctor’s principal patient Sabrina Daldry. Brendan Rock gives a solidly professional performance as Mr. Daldry.

Katherine Fyffe as Annie, the clinical nurse, is an actor entirely worthy of any flagship company's stage. Pamela Jikiemi imbues her character (Elizabeth) with a redolent dignity stolen only by glimpses of a profound sorrow not realised until late in the play during an emotionally infused exchange with Mrs. Givings. Jikiemi is a singular beauty on stage.

Cameron Goodall is up to his usual standard in the role of painter Leo Irving, with a scene that is the comic highlight of the night.

The period costumes are superb and almost represent an eighth character on the stage while the set itself is impressive with Designer Ailsa Paterson showing a keen eye for detail. Catherine Oates' composition means that she is a music composer par excellence.

Ruhl has written a funny and interesting play and what makes it all the more of an achievement is the fact it’s a comedy. When a drama misfires the actors or the storyline itself can carry the weight but when comedy misfires nothing can save a bad joke from falling flat on its face. Fortunately, IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play chugs along like a well tuned Chevy V8 and the laughs range from the slapstick to the piquant. Elements of repetition do creep in, leaving one with the feeling that if Ruhl could have cut the 145 minutes running time slightly and reduced some of the ideas while fully developing others, it quite possibly could have won that Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award.

Not surprisingly, for all the sex, the play’s final denouement is all about love and romance. In all, it’s the audience’s cerebral responses and belly laughs that make this play and this production a success.