Clean Sweep at the Goodman

CLEAN SWEEP AT THE GOODMAN

 

by Jeff Bennett

 

Even in the cleanest house, a little dirt must fall. This is true in the Goodman Theatre Company's production of The Clean House, a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Award, written by prolific playwright, Sarah Ruhl, and directed by her long-time collaborator, Jessica Thebus. The slick and warmly funny production is a clean sweep…perfectly written, deftly cast, and strongly performed.

 

The Clean House is the tale of a successful and busy doctor, Lane (Mary Beth Fisher) who hires a Brazilian cleaning woman, Matilde, (Guenia Lemos) to clean her house, but Matlilde's attitude towards dirt is, "if the floor is dirty, look at the ceiling."  Cleaning the house also makes Matilde sad, and even though Lane medicates her, she still idles around the house, not cleaning a thing, and trying to come up with the funniest joke in the world.  When it is obvious that the Zoloft isn't working, Lane's sister Virginia, (Christine Estabrook), a morose woman herself who is obsessed with cleanliness, offers to take over and clean the house on the sly. For a few weeks, this arrangement seems to be the perfect solution but then all hell breaks loose.

 

Playwright Sarah Ruhl was inspired for the script at a cocktail party after overhearing a doctor who medicated her own maid to get her to clean house because as she said, "I didn't go to medical school to clean my own house!"

 

In the opening monologue, Guenia Lemos, as Matilde, stands on a stark stage and tells a joke to the audience in Portuguese. Even though it is impossible to understand a word she is saying, Lemos had the audience in stitches. Her performance was delicate and Lemos avoided the easy choice of making Matilde a cardboard stereotypical maid we so often see.

 

Mary Beth Fisher, as Lane, the uptight doctor who just wants a clean house, is the most unlikable of characters in the play as she whizzes in and out trying to keep everything together. Her performance is perfect–especially after she allows us to see the cracks in her tough exterior and her neat world exploding into dirty little pieces.

 

Christina Estabrook, as Virginia, Lane's "clean freak" sister, gives the best performance in the cast. She is nutty one minute, and strikingly sane the next as she tries to maintain an even keel by not only keeping her house squeaky clean, but also keeping he sister's clean.

 

Todd Rosenthal's stark set is just as important a cast member as anyone on stage. It's whiter than white and perfectly echoes Lane's struggle to keep it all together.

 

Sarah Ruhl is a native of Wilmette Illinois/> and is one of the "most produced writers in America/>/> this season." Robert/> Falls/>/>, Goodman's Artistic Director says, "Every so often, a play comes along that is so original, insightful, and genuinely unique that it literally demands to be done." Few playwrights are able to mix comedy and pathos into such a perfect blend. This is a gem of a play!

 

The Clean House at the Goodman Theatre runs May 15^th through June 4^th  2006.

 

The Goodman Theatre

170 North Dearborn/>/>

(312) 443-3811

Tickets $20 to $60.

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