reviewed by Ivanna Cullinan
Not only does Hysterical: A Short History of the Vibrator provide background on the device’s origin, this show raffles one off as a door prize at every performance. That’s one of many fun elements within this amusing piece. Hysterical seeks to answer why the vibrator was "developed for home use before the vacuum cleaner." It also covers medical history, basic Freud, the intricacies of marriage, difficulties in patent protection, and women’s rights. This may sound like too much for a show that runs one hour and fifteen minutes, and actually the show’s got too many platforms going at once. Yet despite these polemics, the exuberance carries the show through to its finish.
It starts with a bit of a lecture by Frances (Andrea Caron), who I thought was simply a narrator. Then about two thirds of the way through the piece, she suddenly becomes one of the characters within the story line. Her commentary is humorous and bright, it only becomes a bit of a harangue when the character is forced to do double duty. Frances never quite fits as she flits back and forth between being a character and being a mouthpiece.
The story centers on Foster (Allyson Wood), a doctor, and his wife Nellie (Lani Hansen). He and his boisterous obstetrician friend, Charles (Emma Palumbo), invent the vibrating device. Foster is firm in his conviction that the "hysterical paroxysm", (a.k.a. orgasm), is entirely separate from his somewhat limp grasp of proper conjugal relations. The sexually excitable Charles disagrees, but together they work on a mechanical resolution to "relieve" the hysteric patient.
Both doctors are played with some very funny stereotyping by two women in drag (whose hair is tightly confined in buns). They are very exaggerated characters and alongside the narration, seemed to be moving the play in a political direction. This makes the more naturalistic depiction of Nellie jarring; presenting Nellie as more human may be meant as a sane contrast to the truly hysterical behavior of the men, but as the other female is not played in the same style, this inconsistency confuses what the play is trying to do.
My frustration with the play is that in trying to cover so many arguments, it kept getting in the way of its own story. Hysterical is a good piece and amusing. You will laugh, enjoy yourself, and you may win a vibrator. But oh, this show could go so much further with a bit more emphasis on technique.
