Ithaca College

On Thursday, February 25th, at 7 p.m. in Studio 4 in the Dillingham Center, the On the Verge play-reading series will present a staged reading of Sarah Ruhl’s 2009 play, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play. The reading will be directed by Claire Gleitman, a faculty member in the department of English, and the cast will include Ithaca College students from the Theatre and English departments.

Sarah Ruhl's provocative comedy takes place in the 1880s, at the dawn of the age of electricity, when it was not uncommon for medical doctors to utilize vibrator therapies to bring on “paroxysms” in female patients who had been diagnosed with “hysteria.” In the Next Room focuses upon a doctor who treats his patients with the newly invented “electrical stimulating machine” (for which he enthusiastically credits Thomas Edison) -- as well as upon his curious wife, who finds herself eager for some medical treatments of her own! Sarah Ruhl is one of the most noteworthy authors writing for the American stage today, and In the Next Room is her newest play. It is, as one of its characters notes, “a madcap adventure,” as well as a humorous and poignant consideration of the unthinking control men exercised over women’s bodies in the Victorian era.

Please note: In the Next Room contains mature themes and is intended for adult audiences.