Stimulating play

The play is a farce set in the 1880s. Electricity is in its infancy, and doctors have a new tool for treating women diagnosed with "hysteria" - the vibrator.

Hence the title of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, at the Wilma Theater through April 3.

And in the very next room indeed - the Wilma's lobby - there's a display of vintage vibrators provided by Kali Morgan of Sexploratorium on South Fifth Street. Like washing machines and irons, vibrators were pitched to housewives as "Aids that Every Woman Appreciates," according to a 1918 Sears catalog ad reproduced in the production's playbill.

Squeamish at first, theatergoers soon vie for space at the table to study the contraptions, which in no way suggest sexuality.

Morgan herself is there for a postshow demonstration of some new models in use today. The pastel pink Rabbit Pearl, popularized on Sex and the City, is made in Japan, "the only country to regulate the materials used in the production of sex toys," she says to no one in particular in the crowd of about two dozen.

Most are women, standing in high heels or with the aid of walkers. The only two men in the group stand close to their women, as if to justify their presence.

Morgan holds aloft a lavender-and-plum-colored Climax Twist, which has rechargeable batteries.

"I'll pass this one around so you get a feel for it," she says, and as if on cue, those standing in front take one step back. Finally, one woman accepts the Twist and passes it like a hot potato.

Unabashed, Morgan demonstrates other models on her palm.

The Jimmyjane is waterproof, for use in the shower; and the LiLo, with its ergonomic design, is especially quiet, she says, "so you won't hear it in the next room," which is what moves the action of Ruhl's Tony-nominated play.

When the play was performed in Washington, vintage vibrators from New York's Museum of Sex were displayed in the lobby, said Wilma spokesman John Van Heest, "so we got in touch with Kali, who brought in her vintage models and it worked out wonderfully."

Before Edison's time, doctors treated hysteria with manual stimulation, the playbill explains.

"And of course, women would not touch themselves, so at the doctor's office they would point on a porcelain doll," Morgan says, "to indicate the location of their problem."

The vintage-vibrator display will remain in place at intermission for the rest of the production schedule, said Wilma spokesman John Van Heest, and Morgan's postshow demonstration will take place after every Saturday matinee through the run.

Morgan, who offers Passion 101 workshops at the South Philadelphia shop she has owned for 15 years, gave away a free class at the Wilma's March 9 preview performance.

Helen Schaefer, a dog groomer from West Conshohocken, was delighted to have won. "I don't know anyone who doesn't own a vibrator," she said in an interview the next day. "But I didn't know they had been used as medical devices."

Schaefer said she's leaning toward signing up for Morgan's class Fantasy, Role Play & Talking Dirty.

"It will really look good," she said, "on my Match.com page."