Cleveland Play House Presents IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY, 4/13-5/13

Directed by Laura Kepley, CPH Associate Artistic Director, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play takes place at the dawn of electricity, when a remarkable treatment for "hysterical" men and women is taking place. A funny and touching play about marriage and intimacy, A 2010 Tony Award® Nominee for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play will begin in the Second Stage at PlayhouseSquare on Friday, April 13 and is intended for mature audiences. Due to popular demand, the run has been extended one week and will now play through Sunday, May 13, 2012. Tickets are available at PlayhouseSquare ticket office by calling 216-241-6000 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is sponsored by Ambiance, and presented with support from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.

"In the Next Room is one of the most celebrated, recent American comedies," says CPH Artistic Director Michael Bloom. "And with our superb cast and director, I have no doubt it will be one of the highlights of the theatre season."

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play is set in the Victorian era at the dawn of electricity and just before its corseted women shed their inhibitions. Dr. Givings is having tremendous success with a new electric-powered invention designed to alleviate the symptoms of "hysteria." But the noises in the adjoining room spark the curiosity of his wife Catherine, a lonely new mother eager for intimacy. Catherine's investigation into Dr. Givings' work leads to friendships with midwife assistant Annie, wet-nurse Elizabeth, and two of the doctor's patients: the high-strung Sabrina Daldry and the artist Leo Irving – and ultimately to a new relationship with her husband.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009 and debuted on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre later that same year; it has since been performed in theaters across the country and internationally. It received a Tony Award nomination for best play and was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Sarah Ruhl, a Chicagoan-turned-New-Yorker, spent her childhood reading and telling stories but didn't turn to playwriting until midway through her college years at Brown University, where she completed BA and MFA degrees under the tutelage of Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel. In her writing, she is attracted to the irrationality of emotions: "I like plays that have revelations in the moment," she told The New Yorker, "where emotions transform almost inexplicably." Ruhl, who is a wife and mother in her mid-30s, is the author of, among others, The Passion Play Cycle, Eurydice, Dead Man's Cell Phone and The Clean House, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2006, she received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for her "vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

IN THE NEXT ROOM Cast:

Birgit Huppuch: (Sabrina Daldry) most recently played the Bird Statue in 13P's production of Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue. Other credits include playing Mother Ann Lee in Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry's Angel Reapers at The Joyce and Olivia in Pig Iron Theatre Company's Twelfth Night. Her New York City credits include the Foundry Theatre's production of Ariana Reines' Telephone for which she won a 2009 Obie Award.

Donald Carrier: (Mr. Daldry) previously appeared at Cleveland Play House in Ten Chimneys (2012), Noises Off (2008), and Lincolnesque (2007). Regional credits include The Old Globe, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, and The Tempest. He spent nine seasons at Stratford Festival appearing in As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest, Measure for Measure and Coriolanus among many others. He is Associate Director of the Case Western Reserve University/CPH MFA Acting Program.

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