the clean house by sarah ruhl summary

“I’m sorry, but I did not go to medical school to clean my own house,” says anal-retentive Lane as the elements of her spotless living room roll onto the stage. She seeks “a task” to distract her from thoughts of a life that went downhill at age 22. In this edition, I have included several links to interviews with Sarah, stories about her and, especially, her thoughts and inspirations on the gorgeous … Sarah Ruhl ’s “The Clean House” is a rich, ruminative work about the big themes of love, life and death from a young playwright with an original and audacious voice. It’s her skill at weaving together the jagged edges of conflicting lives — finding common ground between neurotic sisters, rivals for the same man or just people with discordant attitudes to life — that makes Ruhl’s play as rewarding humanistically as it is theatrically. “This is how I imagine my husband and his new wife,” says Lane, summoning another image of passionate harmony, visible also to Matilde. It’s only my imagination.”. “I’m sorry,” she tells us, with little apology in her righteous tone, “but I did not go to medical school to clean my own house.”, Fortunately for both, Lane’s unhappily idle sister, Virginia (Jill Clayburgh), sees the quintessence in dust, the metaphysics in mold. Virginia. That’s small comfort to Lane. Orlando, an adaptation of the novel by Virginia Woolf, was commissioned by the Piven Theatre Workshop and premiered in Evanston, Illinois in May 1998 featuring Justine Scarpa as Orlando. Creating order out of chaos is her thing. Extra Credit Assignment (optional) Description: You will have the chance to improve your overall course grade by submitting an additional writing assignment. A consideration of the meaning of dust. As the glue that holds it all together, finding humor even in sorrow, Aspillaga is glorious, her mellifluous delivery and physical indolence offset by a sharp-eyed, observant quality and crack timing. And even at its messiest, when the playwright’s whimsical flourishes threaten to upset the delicate balance, the play is folded all together with a lithe, light touch by Ruhl and director Bill Rauch, who staged the world premiere at Yale Rep in 2004. It’s about learning to live with our flaws and those of others by forgetting the futile quest to iron out the rough edges and instead embracing the mess. By Sarah Ruhl; directed by Bill Rauch; sets by Christopher Acebo; costumes by Shigeru Yaji; lighting by James F. Ingalls; original music and sound by André Pluess; choreography by Sabrina Peck; stage manager, Roy Harris; general manager, Adam Siegel; production manager, Jeff Hamlin. Virginia makes a secret pact with Matilde to clean Lane’s house. A romantic comedy about loss, love, change and redemption, The Clean House is both whimsical and touching. Breakdown. It’s a bold move to open a play with an extended, untranslated dirty joke in Portuguese. When the minimalism of the first act gives way to the extravagances of the second, the set expands to include the balcony of Ana’s house overlooking the sea. “This is how I imagine my parents,” says Matilde at various times, conjuring an elegant couple (also played by Dossett and Tomei) dancing and laughing and loving. 0. Key Information. Gender Female Age Range Adult Role Size Lead Dancing Non Dancer Voice Spoken Analysis. Charles’s apology for the mess he’s made of his wife’s life (“There are things, big invisible things, that come unannounced — they walk in, and we have to give way”) may be self-serving, but it is sincere, and painful but true. if your Poetry Analysis paper receives a B-, this could change it to an A-). The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. “My husband and the woman he loves,” Lane responds coolly. Choreography by Sabrina Peck. Younger sister of Virginia. Winner of the 2003-2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Winner, and 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama Finalist. A 27yr old Brazilian maid who prefers telling jokes over cleaning. At the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th Street, (212) 239-6200. Robbed of the sense of discovery afforded by an untrumpeted talent, critics can respond harshly to even minor disappointment. “The Clean House” is a play concerned primarily with the complex intimacies among women. Sweet and pliable where Lane is brittle and closed off, she loves to clean. The list below contains words from the play that might be new to you. We may never know because The Clean House is a side-splitting comedy about a cleaning lady who’d rather perfect her stand-up routine than clean the house. But there’s a problem: Matilde hates to clean. In 2015, Orlando premiered for the Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House with actress Jacqu… Jill Clayburgh, appearing onstage in her fourth show in a year. It’s soon revealed this earthy, sexy, slightly zaftig woman is live-in housekeeper for busy doctor Lane (Blair Brown). Sets by Christopher Acebo. On the balcony, John Dossett and Concetta Tomei; below, Vanessa Aspillaga, left, and Blair Brown. $75. Cleaning Composite Sinks : The Clean House By Sarah Ruhl Summary. 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A serious career-oriented doctor, Lane, has hired a quirky Brazilian maid. Matilde, Lane’s cleaning lady, a woman in her late twenties. Tue-Sat 8pm; Wed & Sat 2pm; Sun 3pm. Enter Lane’s sister, Virginia (Jill Clayburgh). And it is our good fortune that “The Clean House,” which opened last night at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, has arrived in a gorgeous production that fully taps its tart humor, theatrical audacity and emotional richness. Of course it’s told in Portuguese, so you probably won’t get it. Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. This funny, tender play has screwy poetry and penetrating wisdom, oddball humor, deadpan soap, operatic arias, fantasy, spirituality and a soaring sense of romance. Other Characters From The Clean House. It was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2004, was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and has been produced at major theatres nationwide. Ms. Ruhl’s play has been produced to widespread acclaim at various regional theaters over the last couple of years and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. on all orders of $59 or more. Sarah Ruhl’s plays include How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday, The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth and Stage Kiss.She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. They toss the rejects off the balcony, which bounce around Lane’s living room like unruly intrusions in her once-ordered life. Most of all, it has tremendous compassion. “Don’t worry. You may not know much about Sarah Ruhl, you may have never even heard the name Sarah Ruhl before… Drama Unfolds to the rescue! Presented by the Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, artistic director; Bernard Gersten, executive director. All; Stats ; Monologue; Books (1) Videos (0) Summary. 7% OFF your purchase of $75 or more! Rent or buy The Clean House - 9780573633980. And when Matilde gets depressed, she doesn’t like to clean. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Just the fact that three leading characters here are vivid, complex women over 50 is unusual enough. A Study Guide for Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. Bill Rauch, who directed the play’s world premiere at the Yale Repertory Theater two years ago, blends its contrasting tones with subtle precision. The play was produced Off-Broadway by the Classic Stage Company in 2010. Ms. Ruhl is not content to present a smart little satire of labor relations between the entitled and the immigrant underclass in contemporary America. The dialogue with which Matilde closes the play is such a refined and arresting piece of emotional distillation it’s perhaps not surprising that Aspillaga is still visibly moved during her bows. His cast displays the same keen understanding of Ms. Ruhl’s ability to see the absurdity in extremes of emotion, but the authenticity too. Following a brief hiatus, The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl returns to the Commonweal stage through October 22. Starring Vanessa Aspillaga, Blair Brown, Jill Clayburgh, John Dossett, Concetta Tomei. Ms. Clayburgh has hardly left the stage since she returned to it last fall after a long absence. She seems as upset about the deception as she is about the newfound knowledge that her husband Charles (John Dossett) has fallen in love with one of his patients. Constantly surprising and inventive, the discussions of love, death, and the jokes that make life bearable are intriguing and well explored. The Clean House - PDA Presentation 1. Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House” is a rich, ruminative work about the big themes of love, life and death from a young playwright with an original and audacious voice. Rauch guides the actors to find the peculiar grooves in Ruhl’s writing, the limber ebb and flow between naturalism and fantasy. She describes how she always hated doctors until Charles came along. But Matilde has been hired to clean Lane’s house, and her allergic reaction to Windex and feather dusters has the even-tempered Lane on edge. "The Clean House" by Sarah Ruhl debates the merits of cleanliness — and having one's life in order. A pumped up reputation can be tough on emerging artists. That world and the sterile living room where Lane lies in a depressed funk on the couch begin ingeniously to overlap. There is evidence to support that bold assertion. Always Ready With a Joke, if Not a Feather Duster. Buy A Study Guide for Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House" by Cengage Learning Gale for $21.99 at Mighty Ape Australia. In the Next Room was also a Pulitzer Prize … Ms. Tomei also finds the rooted truth of her exotically spiced character, an unlikely Latina temptress at 67. The poignance and dithery charm in her portrayal of Virginia are perfectly calibrated, as unhappiness and sororal envy evolve into compassion. A serious doctor. The Clean House By Sarah Ruhl 2. The play is a whimsical romantic comedy centered on Matilde, a Brazilian cleaning woman who would rather be a comedienne. The Clean Housewas Sarah Ruhl’s first play to garner significant national attention. And so Virginia persuades Matilde to let her clean her sister’s house on the sly, thereby setting in motion a series of events that gradually reorders — and ineluctably deepens — the relationships among the play’s characters, who include Lane’s husband, Charles (John Dossett), a surgeon, and his new mistress, Ana (Concetta Tomei), on whom he recently performed a mastectomy, just after falling instantly in love with her during a brief consultation. My confidence derives in small part from the general paucity of seriously good new plays. Trouble erupts when the husband falls in love with one of his cancer patients. But this peculiarity epitomizes a fundamental message of Ms. Ruhl’s odd and enchanting play: We may never come to a full understanding of the jokes life plays, but the wisest and possibly noblest response is to have a good laugh anyway. As she spends her days not cleaning, she befriends her boss’s sister—who lives only to clean. Reality, of course, is never as smooth and uncomplicated as those fantasies, but Ruhl suggests there’s joy and fulfillment to be found even in disarray. Director Joyce Piven later helmed the show again in March 2003 at The Actors' Gang, Hollywood, California, with Polly Noonan taking on the title role. That compelling moment in “The Clean House” was the perfect bellweather of the Lean Ensemble’s brilliant production of the award-winning play. Despite being the most well-meaning and devoted of lovers, Charles drops out of the picture; he’s off on a loopy mission in Alaska, chopping down a yew tree to cure cancer and learning to fly a plane. What makes the play so satisfying is that behind the quirks, subtle intelligence and clever aphorisms, there’s also deep feeling for the solidarity, practicality and emotional resilience of women. Sarah Ruhl. WITH: Vanessa Aspillaga (Matilde), Blair Brown (Lane), Jill Clayburgh (Virginia), John Dossett (Matilde’s Father/Charles) and Concetta Tomei (Matilde’s Mother/Ana). As Ms. Ruhl’s compassionate comedy argues, the best things in life — a sublime joke, a fulfilling purpose, a soul mate, even a satisfactory death — are infinitely worth waiting for. SHOPPING BAG (0) FREE SHIPPING. Character Lane Show The Clean House. Its kaleidoscopic sensibility embraces an operatic love story that ends as operatic love stories tend to do; a balletic feat of physical comedy from Ms. Clayburgh, in which Lane’s pristine living room is reduced to merry disorder by the woman who so lovingly cleaned it; and perceptive reflections on our need for order in life and its painful conflict with the chaos of real passion and the messy paths of circumstance. See more characters from Sarah Ruhl. SHARE. Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House" is a rich, ruminative work about the big themes of love, life and death from a young playwright with an original and audacious voice. Creative Analysis: The Clean House The simplicity of the stage design is apparent in the writing of the play, there is very little reference or description of stage setting emphasis is placed on character interactions - seems more intense Lighting The lighting would change as the “The Clean House.” Written by Sarah Ruhl. The play was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. If that sounds a little preposterous, that’s because it is. Members: Reviews: Popularity: Average rating: Mentions: 40: 2: 459,209 (3.78) 2 "The play takes place in a "metaphysical Connecticut" where married doctors emply a Brazilian housekeeper who is more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in cleaning. Ruhl is the real deal. And yet thanks to the alchemical imagination of Sarah Ruhl, the gifted author of “The Clean House,” this strange grab bag of ideas and images, together with … And yet thanks to the alchemical imagination of Sarah Ruhl, the gifted author of “The Clean House,” this strange grab bag of ideas and images, together with some more exotic ingredients, magically coheres to form one of the finest and funniest new plays you’re likely to see in New York this season. “If you do not clean,” she asks, “how do you know if you’ve made any progress in life?” The daft sparkle in Ms. Clayburgh’s eye glows brighter as Virginia says, “If it were not for dust I think I would die.”. SHARE. Without ever having had a major New York production of her work, Ruhl has achieved considerable stature, with literary prizes, a recent MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and well-received stagings at top regional theaters across the country. Cleaning Composite Sinks. Breakdown; Suggested Audition Pieces; Related Products; Useful Articles; Breakdown. When Charles performs her mastectomy like an orchestra conductor in a quasi-sexual, quasi-religious ceremony accompanied by heavenly music, it’s a scene of unsettling beauty and sadness. The Clean House characters breakdowns including full descriptions with standard casting requirements and expert analysis. Character Matilde Show The Clean House. But this is hardly the time to lament the state of playwriting, or to wonder why inhabitants of the country’s theatrical capital should be last in line at the punch bowl. Sociology is just one small thread in the multihued tapestry of “The Clean House,” a play that keeps revealing surprising insights, whimsical images and layers of rich feeling as it goes along. In fact, it’s hard to fathom how they comfortably fit into the same play. 0. Use coupon code TUESDAY in checkout. Breakdown. The chilly silence that follows this explanation is broken by Matilde, ready with her usual remedy: “Would anybody like to hear a joke?”. A serious career-oriented doctor, Lane, has hired a quirky Brazilian maid. A romantic comedy about loss, love, change and redemption, The Clean House is both whimsical and touching. The Clean House is a play by Sarah Ruhl, which premiered in 2004 at Yale Repertory Theatre, was produced Off-Broadway in 2006, and has since been produced in many theaters. Subscribe. In his review of The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl, Hilton Als argues that Sarah Ruhl is being ignorant in her portrayal of Matilde, the maid in The Clean House. RENT TEXTBOOKS; BUY TEXTBOOKS; eTEXTBOOKS; SELL TEXTBOOKS; DAILY DEAL; IMPORTANT COVID-19 UPDATES. It is a romantic comedy about a Brazilian cleaning woman, named Matilde, who wants to become a comedian. But that’s how we first encounter Matilde (Vanessa Aspillaga), standing on a bench in the middle of Christopher Acebo’s austere white-on-white set. The cozy arrangement is scuppered when Lane comes home early and discovers the switch. Lincoln Center - Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Vanessa Aspillaga, left, as a housekeeper who doesn’t like to clean, with Jill Clayburgh, Blair Brown and Concetta Tomei, in Sarah Ruhl’s play “The Clean House.”. An elaborate joke told in Portuguese, without translation. If your assignment is of quality work, you can increase ONE of your essay grades up to a full letter grade. The play was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Costumes by Shigeru Yaji. Running time: 2 hours. More details. A trek to Alaska to retrieve a cancer-curing tree. Sarah Ruhl’s “Passion Play” is an epic-length but light-spirited romp through several centuries of religious pageantry, individual morality and global politics. Tomei is especially fine in a fiery, flamboyant role; Brown deftly balances Lane’s hard surfaces with newly rediscovered vulnerability; and Clayburgh’s Virginia is a lovable nerd with bright flashes of insight. Through Dec. 17. Many of them can either be built up (by adding prefixes and suffixes to the root word) or stripped down (by taking prefixes and suffixes away) into words that you’ll have no While he’s handsome and successful, Ana (Concetta Tomei) is not the expected trophy babe; she’s a 67-year-old woman with breast cancer. Complete summary of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room. When she is not thinking up jokes, Matilde gets depressed. Also seeking neatness, Charles brings Ana by to meet his wife, hoping they might all be friends. © Copyright 2021 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. He specifically says that in her portrayal of a latina Woman, who is supposed to be Brazilian, she does it as a stereotypical latina woman. Ruhl always does a wonderful job of stretching the possible, making her plays feel like part reality, part myth, and The Clean House is no different. GET EXCLUSIVE OFFERS . She says that when she was in surgery, Charles must have left his soul inside her before closing her up. Here’s hoping her plays will now reach New York more swiftly. MY ACCOUNT HELP DESK; Find Books. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of In the Next Room. This is her fourth performance on a New York stage in a mere year, and it is her finest by far. As you read The Clean House script you will probably encounter plenty of new words, but many of them come from familiar roots. by Sarah Ruhl Romantic Comedy – The whimsical tale of a Brazilian maid who would rather be a comedian. Ruhl has an uncanny ability to anchor even the most flighty romantic cliches — love at first sight, finding a soulmate, going crazy with love — in reality. In context, and as performed by an actress of Ms. Brown’s trenchant gifts, it feels as honest as it is painful, as painful as it is hilarious. Yet Ruhl never makes fun of him; she treats all her characters with respect. “Who are they?” a startled Matilde asks, entering Lane’s pristine living room unexpectedly and seeing an unknown couple embracing. The Clean House is a comic drama that mixes fantasy and reality as it tells the story of five disparate characters. Directed by Bill Rauch. The only problem is that the maid, Matilde, hates to clean. Yet it’s her fearless steps into Latin-flavored magic realism that make the play so distinctive, even when it veers toward preciousness. With her insistence on the transformative — not to mention fatal — charms of a good joke, the character of Matilde might seem dubiously quirky, but Ms. Aspillaga humanizes her with ease, tempering warmth with a deadpan sense of timing. So it’s both a pleasure and a relief that the arrival of her most celebrated play in Lincoln Center Theater’s constantly surprising production makes it clear what all the fuss is about. Still mourning the deaths of her parents (the funniest people in their Brazilian village, her mother literally died laughing and her father committed suicide soon after), 27-year-old Matilde just wants to write jokes. Ana and Matilde take bites out of one apple after another searching for the perfect fruit. The play opens with that tantalizing untranslated joke, told with a raunchy exuberance that transmits a fair amount of its humor by a young woman from Brazil named Matilde (Vanessa Aspillaga). Key Information. Breakdown; Suggested Audition Pieces; Related Products; Useful Articles; Breakdown. Ana is having an affair with her doctor, Charles. See more characters from Sarah Ruhl. Reflecting on her marriage, Virginia says, with satisfaction and just a little disappointment, “My husband is like a well-placed couch.” Mr. Dossett is thoroughly effective as the resident sofa.
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