Review: THE CLEAN HOUSE at Theatre Artists Studio

Sarah Ruhl is one of contemporary theater’s most distinctive voices, known for her poetic, whimsical storytelling that blends the everyday with the surreal. A playwright with a gift for balancing humor and heartbreak, she has built a body of work that reimagines classical myths (Eurydice), probes Victorian repression (In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play), and explores modern alienation (Dead Man’s Cell Phone). Her plays often subvert theatrical conventions, weaving magical realism into narratives that examine love, loss, and human connection with striking emotional clarity.

A finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize, THE CLEAN HOUSE exemplifies her signature style—melding comedy, tragedy, and fantasy to create a meditation on how people grapple with grief, love, and their own imperfections. In Theatre Artists Studio’s current production (running through March 9th), the cast brings energy and enthusiasm to Ruhl’s idiosyncratic characters, creating an experience that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

At the heart of the story is Matilde, a Brazilian housekeeper who loathes cleaning but finds solace in crafting the perfect joke. She works for Lane, a rigidly composed doctor whose carefully curated life unravels when she learns her husband, Charles, has fallen in love with a cancer patient, Ana. Lane’s sister, Virginia, compensates for her own feelings of inadequacy by obsessively cleaning, conspiring with Matilde to keep Lane’s house in order—both literally and metaphorically. Ruhl orchestrates these characters in an intricate dance of humor and sorrow, punctuated by fantasy sequences that deepen the play’s exploration of love and grief.

The cast delivers a lively and engaging performance, embracing the play’s offbeat rhythms. However, while they bring zest to their roles, the production leans more into the comedy than the deeper emotional undercurrents that make THE CLEAN HOUSE so resonant. Moments of grief, love, and existential reflection feel somewhat underdeveloped, leaving the play’s more poignant themes just out of reach.

The first act is engaging and well-paced, with the cast delivering sharp comedic beats and establishing the play’s delicate balance between humor and melancholy. However, the second act becomes increasingly chaotic, particularly during a surreal surgery scene and moments of heightened theatricality that seem to overwhelm rather than deepen the play’s emotional impact. While this shift reflects Ruhl’s signature style—blurring reality and fantasy to explore love, loss, and control—the production doesn’t always navigate this transition smoothly. As a result, some of the play’s more profound themes risk being lost in the frenzy, leaving the audience entertained but perhaps a bit bewildered.

Michelle Herro brings charm and playfulness to Matilde, effectively capturing her blend of melancholy and mischief, while her untranslated Portuguese jokes reinforce the theme of untranslatable emotions and cultural dissonance.

Debra Rich’s portrayal of Lane begins with icy precision, loosening only as the character’s emotional barriers erode. Her emotional unraveling, central to the play’s exploration of control and vulnerability, is intense. Just as Rich effectively conveys Lane’s initial rigidity, she infuses her character’s eventual breakdown—particularly in the moment when she is forced to confront both her husband’s betrayal and Ana’s mortality—with pathos.

Anne Vogel, as Virginia, is the comedic highlight of the play. She delivers a captivating blend of neuroticism and humor to the play, channeling nervous energy into a performance that underscores the play’s meditation on control and disorder. Her portrayal of Virginia’s compulsive need to clean—perhaps as a way of managing her inner chaos—is both funny and deeply human. Vogel’s comedic timing is impeccable, but it’s her vulnerability, especially in the quieter moments, that adds layers to her character, transforming Virginia from mere comic relief to a figure struggling with her own need for order in a chaotic world.

Charles and Ana, played by Jason Isaak and Kandyce Hughes with a blend of gravitas and lightness, elevate the production’s emotional stakes. Their presence is in marked contrast to the convulsive interactions of the other characters, but they serve to deliver Ruhl’s underlying message about love and life.

Charles’s transformation from a seemingly selfish man to one guided by an earnest belief in love’s calling is compelling. He embarks on a journey to Alaska to find a yew tree because he believes its bark contains medicinal properties that could help cure Ana. Ruhl has offered us a grand, romanticized view of love and healing in Charles’s resolute belief that true devotion requires dramatic, heroic action. The yew tree, known for its use in cancer treatments (as it contains compounds used in chemotherapy drugs like Taxol), symbolizes both the hope and futility of trying to control life and death. His quest, though noble in intention, ultimately underscores the play’s theme that some things—like love, illness, and fate—cannot be tidied up or neatly resolved.

While Charles embarks on a grand, quixotic gesture of devotion, Ana embodies a serene acceptance of life’s impermanence. She doesn’t fight fate; instead, she embraces love, joy, and human connection in the time she has left. Ethereal and warm, she moves through the play with a quiet wisdom, offering a gentle counterpoint to the more rigid and anxious characters around her. Where Charles sees love as an act of conquest and salvation, Ana sees it as an act of presence—being fully open to the beauty and messiness of life, even in the face of death.

Ultimately, THE CLEAN HOUSE is less about plot than about the emotional and existential messes that people try—and often fail—to tidy up. Ruhl’s writing ensures that laughter and heartbreak exist side by side, never tipping into melodrama but instead offering a poignant meditation on imperfection and connection. Under Suze St. John’s direction, this production captures the play’s wit and eccentricity, making for an entertaining and thoughtful time at the theater.

Theatre Artists Studio ~ https://www.thestudiophx.org/ ~ 12406 N. Paradise Village Parkway E., Scottsdale, AZ ~ 602-765-0120

Graphic credit to TAS

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