Heads up — this one’s a screamer.
An assortment of moans, groans and yelps — male and female, electrically and manually induced — is the chorus for PlayMakers Repertory Company’s production of “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play).”
The play, written by Sarah Ruhl, blends a Victorian setting and modern comedy in its story about the vibrator’s early use to “release excess fluid in the womb,” a cure for hysteria.
In capitalizing on the play’s rampant sexual humor, the production is successful.
But it leans a little too hard on the shock value, and the script’s deeper issues — like racial tensions, suppressed homosexuality and a mother’s failure to connect with her baby — take a back seat.
The play’s action never leaves the home of the vibrator’s keeper, Dr. Givings, whose operating theater and living room share a wall.
The show starts sluggishly. Its first act contains tedious moments where virtually nothing is happening on stage besides a woman removing layers of clothing.
Characters shuffle in and out of the house, between the living room and the “next room,” into and out of their clothes, from frustration to ecstasy. Watching the action feels like watching an assembly line in an orgasm factory.
In the second act, the show begins to accelerate toward its climax, which features full nudity and snowstorm coitus.
