Syracuse Stage’s season-closing production of ‘The Clean House’ shines

Stage closes out its most solid season in years with a sometimes-poignant, sometimes-funny work by the promising American playwright, Sarah Ruhl

By David Feldman
http://cnycafemomus.com/David_Feldman.html 

I saw The Clean House several years ago at Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca and thought it was an engaging evening in the theater.  But before I went to the current Syracuse Stage production (attentively directed by Michael Barakiva) I realized I couldn’t remember much of the action except that it included a perky Brazilian maid in an American home who spends none of her time cleaning and much of it trying to come up with the perfect joke.  Blame age creeping up on my brain if you like, but I think this is not a stick-to-your-memory play.

It is fun and clever, though.  And it has put Ruhl at the head of the class of bright, up-and-coming American playwrights.  

Lights up on John Iacovelli’s interior of a sleek and modern home, all off-whites, silver and gray, with a balcony running up high behind it.  And there is the maid Matilde (the perkily pretty, charmingly accented and thoroughly delightful Gisela Chipe) all in black, telling us a joke in Portuguese but telling it with so much physical emphasis that the power of body language trumps the need for words.   Despite her joke, we soon learn Matilde is mourning the death of her parents, both lovers of good jokes.  Indeed, her mother died from laughing at the world’s funniest joke (gun in the drawer hint: This quirky bit will emerge to tie things up in the end), after which she moved from Brazil to the U.S. and took a job as a maid despite the fact that she hates to clean house.

Enter next her employer Lane (Carol Halstead), dressed all in light shades (colors are important in this production’s concept), a physician who is married to a surgeon (David Adkins) who, it turns out, is offstage at the hospital taking an older woman as lover.  We get clues about this when red and black undies appear in the laundry, while Lane’s own lingerie is all white.  

It is Lane’s sister Virginia (Linda Marie Larson) who finds out about the undies.  She’s there because she loves to clean and has nothing much else to do anyway.  So she convinces Matilde to let her take on the job without Lane’s knowledge.

Got all that?  Well, it’s one of those plots that’s more confusing to relate than it is to comprehend when you’re in the audience.

And it gets more complex when husband Charles brings his lover home to meet the extended family.  She’s Ana, much older than Charles, and the two fell in love when discussing her upcoming mastectomy. Played by Alma Cuervo, Ana is just about the warmest, sweetest person you ever hope to know, with a smile that simply lights up the stage (and our hearts) in soft, warm tones.

Ana lives in a small place overlooking the sea, where life is far more engaging and emotional than it is in the sprawling, monochromatic home of those doctors.  In that house, life and human contact are kept so clean and neat there’s not much emotional connection between any of the occupants.  By the end of the play the warmth of Ana will have been invited into that too-clean home.  And since this play is more magic realism where the old Aristotelian unities of time and place don’t count for much than it is old fashioned realism, many objects of bright colors will have been passed or thrown directly from Ana’s house to Lane’s, even though they’re nowhere near one-another.  And Charles will have brought home a very large yew tree from Alaska in a vain attempt to heal Ana, whose cancer has returned.

But that won’t save Ana, who’d rather have a relationship with death and die loving life and laughter and friends than a relationship with the world of medicine –– which isn’t concerned with the genuine life values that Ana represents.

And by the end, a group of people who for the first three-quarters of the production are placed so they almost never come near each other –– emphasizing their emotional distance (good use of the stage by director Barakiva) –– will all end up surrounding Ana.  The women will even eat chocolate ice cream from the same bowl together.  And all of them end up loving each other and being loved, even in pain and death, by Ana.  Ah . . . did I give away the ending?  No, it’s how she dies (see hint above) that’s surprising and delightful, and extremely moving.

Thomas C. Hase’s lighting design complements the theme and the direction.  It is strikingly dramatic at times and varies in actual and emotional colors to suit the action.  Oana Botez-Ban’s costumes, too, complement the action –– monochromatic on Charles and the two sisters, brightly colored and/or black for Ana and Matilde.

Personally, I thought the chocolate ice cream bit was pushing things a bit.  That’s almost a sitcom piece of action.  And there are so many cutesy pronunciations to Matilde’s name (pronounced Ma-chil-gee) that any possible humor in the subject falls flat the third time around and slows down the action.  I also thought the production, while as clever as the play, was a bit too glitzy and sleek at times.  And there are moments when I wish director Barakiva had paced things faster.  But that’s me quibbling from under my critic’s cap.  Quibbles aside, this is a thoroughly first-class production of an intriguing play by one of the bright new stars on the theater’s horizon and a fine end to one of the most solid Syracuse Stage seasons in years.  It’s been a season on which Tim Bond has firmly put his stamp as artistic director and which has had record audiences –– all of which bodes well for the future of the area’s premiere theater company.

DETAILS BOX:
What: The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl, performed by Syracuse Stage
Where: Archbold Theatre, 820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse
When: Through May 22
Length:  2 hours, including one 15-minute intermission
Tickets: Adults, $25 to $48; 40 and under, $25; 18 and under,  $16; student rush, $15 Call 315-443-3275, or www.SyracuseStage.org 
Family guide: Some adult themes and situations