Review: SOMETHING CLEAN at Dobama

Northwestern grad, Selina Fillinger, was the first Judith Barlow Prize winner, an annual student award given to work inspired by a historic female playwright.  “In 2019, her play SOMETHING CLEAN received the Laurents/Hatcher Award.”  “Her play POTUS: OR, BEHIND EVERY GREAT DUMBASS ARE SEVEN WOMEN TRYING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE, premiered on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in 2022, making Fillinger, at 28, one of the youngest playwrights to be produced on Broadway.”  She is one of the new bright lights in the world of contemporary playwriting.

 

In his well-written program notes Dobama’s Artistic Director Nathan Motta states, in regard to female and male rape, that the spotlight is usually placed on the victim or perpetuator.  But, “what are the ripple effects on the families of both the survivor and perpetrator? What warning signs or behavior did those close to the offender miss? While it might be natural to worry about an act of violence happening to someone you love, how often do we consider the thought of someone we’re close to committing such an appalling act?”

 

At the start of SOMETHING CLEAN, now on stage at Dobama, we find Charlotte (Derdriu Ring) and Doug (Robert Ellis) center stage in a pin-spot light.  They stand emotionless.  Doug reaches tentatively to hold Charlotte’s hand.  She pulls away. 

 

As we find out through a number of quick-enfolding scenes, the respectable lives of Charlotte and Doug have been in free-fall due to the emotional fallout caused by their college-age son’s imprisonment for a sex crime.  It appears, from the reaction of their friends and the community, that this will forever taint them.

 

To add to the angst, a recent trial and conviction of a black young man resulted in a prison sentence much longer than that assigned to their white son, is causing public outcry.

 

As the play speeds through scenes of Charlotte and Doug’s strained bedroom routines, Doug’s long absences to be “at work,” her volunteering at an inner-city sexual assault counseling center, where she is reluctant to reveal her name and qualifications other than that she is “really good at tackling stains … any stains,” to her developing into a mother figure for gay employee Joey, to his revealing that he was a survivor of assault by a neighbor beginning when he was 9 years old, to her finally telling Joey who she is, to her attempts to clean the dumpster, near the fraternity house, where her son’s crime occurred, we are taken on a speeding train heading for either a possible safe arrival at the station of resolve or a resounding crash destined to destroy the lives or two people.

 

Fillinger has etched clear characters, in a focused plot, interspersed with dark ideas and even darker comic dialogue.  She well deserves the awards the script has garnered.

 

Sindelar’s directing is laser-sharp.  The pace, the character development, the humor and the angst, is clearly developed.

 

Derdriu Ring, the four-time award winner for best local actress from The Cleveland Critics Circle and BroadwayWorld-Cleveland, gives another superb performance as Charlotte, a woman struggling to make sense of her own grief and culpability.  She doesn’t portray the role, she is Charlotte.  Her pain, is our pain.  Her angst is our angst.  Bravo!

 

Robert Ellis matches Ring as Doug, a suffering father trying to both confront his role in his son’s fall and his failure to be emotionally present when his wife needs him.

 

Isaiah Betts makes his Dobama premier in fine fashion as Joey.  He has a nice touch for both drama and comedy, and displays solid acting chops. 

 

It is always difficult to design a set in Dobama’s long narrow stage space.  Naoko Skala has succeeded in fitting three unique settings into the space.  Jeremy Paul’s lighting and Angie Hayes’ sound designs helps the rapid-fire scenes in perspective. 

 

Capsule judgment:  Combine the fine writing by Selina Fillinger, with the focused directing of Shannon Sindelar, add in the excellent technical aspects of the Dobama staff, and three finely-etched realistic portrayals, and the result is a superb evening of must-see theatre.

 

SOMETHING CLEAN runs through March 30, 2024 at Dobama on Lee road in Cleveland Heights.  For tickets: call 216.932.3396 or go to https://www.dobama.org/

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