Didja Hear the One About…? 'The Clean House'

The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl

Directed by Rick Lombardo

Cristina Todesco, scenic design; Charles Schoonmaker, costume design, Deb Sullivan, lighting design; Rick Lombardo, music and sound design; Larry Vigus, properties design; Jamie Whoolery, projection design; Carola Morrone, production stage manager

CAST (in alphabetical order): Nancy E. Carroll, Virginia; Will Lyman, Charles; Cristi Miles, Matilde; Paula Plum, Lane; Bobbie Steinbach, Ana

Performances through March 23, 2008 at New Repertory Theatre

Box Office 617-923-8487 or www.newrep.org

It's a comedy, it's dramatic; it's realistic and fanciful; it's an exquisitely written Pulitzer Prize nominated play by wunderkind Sarah Ruhl. The Clean House at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown is all of these things and more under the artistic direction of Rick Lombardo at the helm of an amazing cast of local actors.

The stark, white living room set serves as a blank canvas upon which the actors paint a colorful story. Ruhl creates wonderful characters for us to spend our evening with: a Brazilian maid who hates to clean (Cristi Miles), a woman doctor who dresses in white (Paula Plum), her older sister who loves to clean (Nancy E. Carroll), her compassionate surgeon husband (Will Lyman), and an "impossibly charismatic" Argentinean woman (Bobbie Steinbach). The first three introduce themselves in opening monologues, beginning with Matilde telling a long joke in Portuguese to the audience. Even though we don't understand the language, Miles' gestures and expression make it visually funny and give us an expectation of more laughs to come.

The white couch, white rug, white lamp, white vase, white walls, and her white suit tell us all we need to know about Lane at the start. This is a woman who does not like to deal with dirt, physically or metaphysically. Her life is all about order and control, so she finds it very frustrating to cope with Matilde. As she says, "I'm sorry, but I did not go to medical school to clean my own house." Lane's sister Virginia is her polar opposite. Dust and its removal represent life and progress to her. She views cleaning as a privilege and deeply personal. In her world, it is also a metaphor for order and control.

The dichotomy between the ways each of the sisters relates to Matilde reflects their longstanding sibling conflict. When Virginia makes a deal with the maid to clean the house for her, it begins as a way for her to fill her time and fulfill her need to organize, but it grows to be a means for her to get closer to Lane and more involved in her life, as well as develop a relationship with the young woman. Lane sees Matilde only as the hired help, a household tool that doesn't seem to be working very well and complicating her life in the process. When she learns that Virginia has been doing the cleaning, she is angry with her sister, but fires the maid.

This discovery is made on the heels of Charles running off with Ana, one of his patients. As her world crumbles, Lane must figure out how to let go, relinquish control, and forge a new persona. It is fascinating to watch her learn life lessons from Matilde, facing her own struggle after the death of her beloved parents, and her husband's new soul mate battling breast cancer, both of whom live life on life's terms. Plum runs the gamut of emotions from anger, hurt, and spite to eventual acceptance and love. She is comical, sardonic, berserk, and stoic, as called for.

Nancy E. Carroll deadpans masterfully when Virginia explains her love of cleaning and why she doesn't like to laugh, despite Matilde's best efforts to get her to lighten up. However, she becomes softer and more open as the story progresses, climaxing in a comic tour de force moment of dirt tossing to the strains of a Pavarotti aria. Many of Carroll's smaller gestures flesh out her character and add greatly to the texture of the play, such as when she pulls blue rubber gloves from her pocketbook before going off to scrub the bathroom, meticulously folds laundry on the coffee table, or dons a surgical mask to vacuum the living room.

The Latin women are the heart and soul of Ruhl's play and both Miles and Bobbie Steinbach exude warmth and charisma. While it requires considerable suspension of disbelief to buy into the almost instantaneous nature of Charles and Ana falling in love, it is easy to see how her personality and outlook seduce and transform this busy, high-powered doctor. Once she becomes a part of their lives, Lane and Virginia cannot help but be charmed – and changed - by her, as well. Ana's fuchsia smock and matching flower in her hair stand in sharp contrast to Lane's white on white and Virginia's black and white attire. Matilde trades her black mourning garb for bright tropical colors when she comes under Ana's influence. Eventually these four diverse women coalesce and create a community that serves each according to her need and crystallizes the message of the play.

As the only man in the house, Charles has two very specific purposes. First, without him, there'd be no rationale for Ana to encounter the other women; second, he represents the conflict that must be resolved for the characters to grow and move on. Lyman takes on the task with gusto, allows us to feel his rebirth, and imbues Charles with an authenticity of spirit. Whether onstage or off, he is a presence that adds to the powerful chemistry of this quintet of actors.

The design team artistically augments the gestalt of the elements of The Clean House. A large grid forms the back wall of Lane's living room. Many scenic images are projected behind it throughout the play, among them blue skies, storm clouds, and the ocean view from Ana's balcony. These projections and lighting changes sufficiently alter the mood from one scene to another to generate fluidity and move the story forward even though it is a unit set. Lombardo and team successfully meet the challenge of illustrating Sarah Ruhl's world of "American magical realism," where the fantastic and the mundane humorously co-exist.

New Repertory Theatre is known for fostering emerging playwrights and further cements that reputation with this featured production. While Ruhl may be more established than some, her work is refreshing and far from ordinary, her voice bright and insightful. Her theme of humor as healing meshes with New Rep's focus on isolation and connection to make us laugh, make us think, and appreciate once again the power of the written word, especially when so well spoken.

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