IN THE NEXT ROOM... Age ranges?

[On the road...]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:08pm

I am living out in St. Louis and the Rep production of In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play starts performances tonight. I know a little about the context of the play, and I've read that there was nudity in the Broadway production. I'm teaching a class to some late high schoolers/early college students and we've been discussing the playwright and I'd like to try to get them down to see the show. What age is too young to take to it? Will Ron Bohmer be nude in it or is it up to the discretion of the director? Just trying to figure out if I should keep pursuing going or drop it. Couldn't find any information on the website. Thanks!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:14pm

The play is about sexuality and openness to it. Orgasms, manually and machine-induced, occur onstage, albeit in a fairly discrete manner. If Ron Bohmer (whom I assume is playing the part of the doctor that Michael Cerveris performerd on Broadway) does not appear in the nude at the end, then the version you're seeing is entirely missing the point and therefore, to my mind, not worth seeing.

Late high school/early college will likely find the play downright quaint.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:19pm

Keep in mind that the reason it's called the vibrator play is because they use vibrators on each other. So I'd say the students would need to be sexually active to get the joke, which many are at 15 or 16. But then you'd have the parents asking why you're teaching their innocent kids to touch themselves. And why you took them to a play containing full frontal (male) nudity. So just for the sake of liability and your continued employment, I'd suggest 21+

[On the road...]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:34pm

Here I am, in regards to my own original post, but why do we, as Americans, find full frontal male nudity so much more scandelous than full frontal female nudity? In movies you see boobs and even nipples all the time, but how often do you see a man without clothes on?

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:48pm

Not nearly often enough.

[Taryn]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 5:54pm

Keep in mind that the reason it's called the vibrator play is because they use vibrators on each other. So I'd say the students would need to be sexually active to get the joke, which many are at 15 or 16.

Wait, are you saying that virgins don't know how vibrators work?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/9/11 at 6:36pm

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, Taryn, but part of the joke is that the audience knows exactly why the characters are shrieking with delight, but the characters have no idea.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/10/11 at 10:51am

I think mature high school seniors and college students could handle the play. Its not so much the nudity, but the content that is provocative. For me, it's one of Ruhl's most accessible plays and I loved it. All that being said, I would get signed parental permission to take the kids.

I assume the male frontal nudity will be in the show. As ghostlight said, if it is not it pretty much renders the point of the play non-existent.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/10/11 at 3:39pm

I would also suggest calling the theatre to find out about the nudity if it is that much of a concern.