Stage Review - In the Next Room (Valley Center Stage)

Stage Review - In the Next Room (Or, The Vibrator Play)
Presented By: Valley Center Stage - North Bend, WA
Show Run: April 04 - April 20, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, April 05, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Anna Tatelman

With a title like In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), someone walking into this show without knowing much beforehand might assume it’s either a sensual drama or a bedroom farce. And while there are elements of both in this script by the talented playwright Sarah Ruhl, In the Next Room primarily – in my humble opinion, as a long-time fan of the script and a newfound fan of this production run – is a coming of age story. Each of the play’s characters is grappling in some sense with their identity, a theme that Valley Center Stage amplifies through its quality direction, high caliber actors, and impressive set design.

Set in the Victorian Era, In the Next Room follows Catherine Givings, who first appears to be the model Victorian woman: a doting mother and caring wife who keeps a tidy, family-centric household. But Catherine is plagued by uncertainty about how well she’s actually fulfilling these roles, whether she is a real person beneath these parts she feels she must play, and why she can’t seem to connect with her husband Dr. Givings whether he’s ‘in the next room’ (his office) or in the same space as her. Meanwhile, Dr. Givings administers cutting-edge treatments designed to alleviate the ‘medical condition’ of hysteria in his (mostly female) patients, primarily through the use of plug-in vibrators powered by the modern wonder of electricity.

Under the direction of Eric Lewis, Valley Center Stage brings In the Next Room to life with great energy and understanding. One of the unique features I’ve always loved about theatre is that – unlike in a film or TV show – although you can draw the audience’s attention to various points, each audience member gets to choose where they focus. In the Next Room gives audiences even more of this freedom, as much of the play occurs through simultaneous scenes in both the living room of the Givings and in Dr. Givings’ office. While Catherine watches her wet nurse give Catherine’s baby milk, torn between relief that her child is being fed and shame at what she perceives as her inadequacy as a mother, a medical patient receives treatment for her hysteria; as Dr. Givings treats his male patient, Catherine sings about the wonders of electricity to her baby. The playwright and production team work in harmony to emphasize both the differences and commonalities between the (as defined by the Victorians) domestic/feminine sphere and the professional/masculine sphere. Whichever ‘next room’ the characters find themselves in, they struggle to communicate – or even to know – what they truly want beneath the roles imposed upon them by their time period, gender, race, and class.

Mary Guthrie does a wonderful job bringing Catherine Givings to life. She captures the protagonist’s fluctuations in emotions with empathy: from her intense feelings of isolation, even when with her own husband and daughter, to her bursts of energy running through the rain or breaking into her husband’s office. The great irony of Dr. Givings (played by Jag) is that, were Catherine not his wife, he would likely diagnose her too with hysteria and treat her with the same polite but impersonal attention as the rest of his patients. Jag understands this internal tension within Dr. Givings and gives us a character whose deep affection for Catherine forces him to view her from a great distance, lest his own sense of self as a man rooted in science break.

This is a solid ensemble all around. Galen Eames plays Leo Irving, a man less restrained by Victorian conventions, which Eames embodies by moving through the space swiftly and startling (or exciting in turn) the other characters with the break in decorum. Skye Stafford performs as Annie, a midwife, and provides throughout the play an amicable, empathetic contrast to Dr. Givings; Stafford captures both this warmth and the vulnerability that comes with it. Jillian Faulk plays Mrs. Daldry, one of Dr. Givings’ patients; it’s a delight watching her stiff body language loosen throughout the play as she reconnects with long-lost parts of herself.

The Victorian era is well known for being a time when people often did not speak their mind, but for no one is that more true in this play than Elizabeth (played by Cara Thomas), the Givings’ wetnurse, who by virtue of being the only Black female in a white home can say what she feels the least by far. Thomas carries this tension with her, making it clear with only a few choice words how much she thinks but cannot express – and when she finally does speak her mind to Catherine, delivers a monologue with a truth that sears the room. Ian Wright as Mr. Daldry has a tough job playing a man who comes off as even more dismissive of women’s experiences and emotions that Dr. Givings, but Wright does an admirable job sympathetically showing how Mr. Daldry too is trapped in a society that has not given him many options of who to be.

I was amazed at both the intricacy and grandiosity of the set design (created by Eric Lewis and constructed by Mark Bryant). Both the living area and the medical room are filled with the kind of details that make me want to sneak on stage and explore: from the patterned wallpaper, to the numerous doors, to the rich carpets, to the old-fashioned (though new to the characters) lighting fixtures. The set is made all the better by the elaborate props (designed by Kimberly Borum); my favorite was the ‘Chattanooga’ of vibrators, replete with multiple wires and a foot pump. The lighting effects (made by Sam Saulnier) are also quite impressive; for much of the show, the office’s barren white walls are made even starker by the white lights many of us associate with medical facilities, while the living space is lit with a warmer, yellow glow reminiscent of candlelight.

Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) is a profound exploration of what it means to find yourself – sexually, yes, but in every other sense, too: to figure out your role in the world, both within the wider society and among the people you love; to discover your unique passions and traits; to embrace your full truth even within a society that requires you to constantly adjust to fit its molds. Valley Center Stage highlights the personal journeys each of its seven characters go on, whether those journeys end in tragedy, uncertainty, or the joy of finally connecting with yourself and others. With storytelling that’sboth touching and entertaining, strong performers, and a set that’s a show unto itself, this is a production worth seeing.

In the Next Room runs on stage at Valley Center Stage in North Bend through April 20. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://valleycenterstage.org/.

Photo credit: Benjamin May