"In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play," is about — shhhhh — what you think it's about.

But it's not only a mechanical device. It's about couples who lack true intimacy in their relationships. And the University of Nebraska Medical Center thinks it's a topic worth talking about, in a public forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Slowdown.

"In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play," a best-play Tony nominee by Sarah Ruhl, opens Feb. 16 at the Blue Barn Theatre. It's set in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in the Victorian era of the 1880s.

The play centers on Dr. Givings and his wife, Catherine, who just had a baby. The doctor, a man of science, specializes in treating women suffering from "hysteria" with a new electrical device. He views the treatment as purely clinical.

But neither he nor another husband, who brings his wife to the doctor for treatment, has a clue about the lack of intimacy within their marriages. They don't speak of such things. And their wives don't know what to do.

The play's theme provided an opportunity for Kacie Gerard, coordinator of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's monthly Science Cafe.

Started in 2009, Science Cafe is a community education program to improve science literacy. Open to anyone 21 and over, it gives the public the chance to talk face to face with a scientist about current topics.

"It's fun to break out of what you think of as traditional science and learn something," Gerard said. "The topics have ranged from beer and art to the environment, water and radiation."

This month the scientist will be Lindsay Novak, a nationally certified sex therapist with a master's degree in counseling, who will talk about the history of sex medicine. Novak also blogs about sexual wellness and relationships on livewellnebraska.com.

Novak said the diagnosis of "hysteria" in women can be traced to before the time of Christ and continued into the 1940s.

While it is no longer recognized as a medical ailment, it once covered a wide array of symptoms, including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex and more. Treatments included pelvic massage, as well as hysterectomies.

Though the diagnosis is gone, the problem is not, Novak said.

"This play spotlights how the sexless marriage is prominent right now, even prevalent," she said.

Novak said her talk will cover the history and evolution of sex and gynecology. She will discuss the different contexts of sex, including intercourse, behavior seen as acceptable through religion's eyes, sexual orientation and "different types of relationships that have ebbed and flowed going back before Christ's time."

She will explore the medical aspects of sex, Freudian theory and how gynecology has shaped sexual medicine into what it is today.

Then Amy Lane, who is directing the play at the Blue Barn, will talk about the show.

"It's a comedy, but the tone of it is so tricky," Lane said. "The audience may die laughing at how the characters talk about intimate things, like bringing a woman to orgasm, yet don't consider it sexual at all. But it's really a story of isolation and loneliness."

Novak predicted there would be sadness under the laughing, and audience members would identify with issues being dealt with in the play.

Susan Clement-Toberer, artistic director of the Blue Barn, said she chose "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play" because it fit the 2011-12 "season of rebellion" theme so well. Last fall's season opener, "Bug," and a musical opening in May, "Spring Awakening," share story lines of repressed passion.

Ruhl has said her inspirations for writing the play included books she read: "The Technology of Orgasm," by Rachel P. Maines, and "A Social History of Wet Nursing in America."

Photos Novak has of a vibrator from a century ago are being used to design the stage version. "Back then, you could buy a vibrator from Sears Roebuck," Novak said, "because it wasn't viewed as sexual. The ad might be next to a washer and dryer."

An antique operating table has also been found, and props designer Darren Kuehler is creating or finding other period items.

Martin Scott Marchitto's scenic design features handsome woodwork and painting by Craig Lee. Jennifer Pool's costumes also will take audiences back to the 1880s, as will the characters' attitudes toward sex.

"They ask each other what is marriage, what is love, what did you think it would be like?" Lane said. "The romantic version doesn't match the reality — the sadness, loneliness and isolation, having nobody to talk to about that."

Novak said the art of lovemaking may have been lost in a sea of contemporary sexual images.

"The Kama Sutra had so much more about lovemaking," she said.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com

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