Shelley Delaney had requested to perform In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) to the department’s selection committee on three separate occasions — and after the fourth time, it will finally be shown on campus.
In the Next Room runs from Oct. 5-7 and Oct. 10-14 at 8 p.m. in the Forum Theater in the RTV building. The play is free for students with an OHIO ID, $10 for adults and $7 for other students and seniors.
In the Next Room is set in the Civil War-era and is centered around the Givings family and the preconceived notion that the cure to hysteria in women was to produce an orgasm. Dr. Givings unknowingly executes this operation using vibrator therapy.
Delaney, the director of the play, was so inspired by the possibilities surrounding the play, that she made a choice to enter her version into a very select group: productions that employ a rotating stage throughout the entire show.
Delaney noted how “this has probably only happened a half-dozen times.” However, the choice was not made for the purpose of attempting something difficult but rather to fulfill an element of the show that the director felt was essential.
“The formal challenge that Sarah Ruhl (the playwright of the show) set up for herself in this was simultaneous action in two spaces,” Delaney said, who was not expecting immediate success in proposing the idea.
However, the design team saw it as an “amazing challenge” and welcomed the difficulties that accompanied the choice. Delaney jokingly acknowledged the struggles the cast and crew is facing as well saying, “I think I’m insane for this.”
The choice similarly challenges the actors to this day. Simone Anderson, who plays Elizabeth in In the Next Room, said it’s difficult to remain oriented at times, as it can be “odd to look down for a while, and then look up and be in a completely different place on stage.”
Anderson, a senior studying in the acting studio, also touched on the challenge of vocal projection on a rotating stage because the voice now has to carry in directions which the body is not necessarily facing.
Despite the challenges, the decision to utilize the rotating stage is also largely beneficial. Delaney said “the show is so much about shifting perceptions ... you could come to all eight performances and see eight different shows.”
She also explained how the rotating stage affects each individual audience member because they only see selective elements of the plot.
“The show doesn’t dictate where your sympathies and empathies are supposed to lie,” Delaney said.
Annie Ganousis, a third-year MFA acting student, plays Dr. Givings’ wife, Catherine, and though it is impossible to deny the sexual elements of the play, she was never phased by them.
“It’s not gratuitous,” Ganousis said. “It’s beautiful because of Ruhl’s writing ... and (the play) tells a story of innocence.”
She, along with castmate Anderson, also cited the cast’s maturity and comfort with each other as reasons why the sexuality was never something that hindered the rehearsal process.
Delaney also said the play relates to a modern era, which is actually set in the 1880s. It also has a prominent feminist application because it “centers on women’s disenfranchisement from their own body.”
The faculty of the program always look to choose productions that address the modern social climate.
“That’s what gives it a uniquely contemporary thematic pull,” Delaney said.
Delaney thinks the play markets itself to students of Ohio University because of its humor and beauty. The multifaceted nature of the play is what Delaney hopes will help the show reach Bobcat audiences.
“Beyond that, it is a period play, but it is utterly contemporary in its sensibility and speaks into relationships,” Delaney said. “But mostly it’s funny.”
