In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play

New York. 1880s. The dawning of the electrical age.

In a seemingly perfect Victorian home, proper gentleman and Scientist Dr.Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating ‘hysteria’ in women – ‘the vibrator’ – with which he has achieved remarkable results. Adjacent to the doctor’s laboratory his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter while wondering exactly what is going on In the Next Room. When a new hysterical patient 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.

The difference between the scientific experiment that the doctor thinks he is conducting and the domestic drama he is unwittingly directing is sheer comedy, and a wonderful look into a social revolution and our late-dawning understanding of female sexuality.

This is a truly, funny and complex look at science vs nature.

“In the Next Room brings scintillating news of the politics of desire, scientific history and sexual behaviour” – John Lahr, The New Yorker

“Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling…one of the most gifted playwrights to emerge in recent years…” – The New York Times

In the Next Room was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play and was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.