October 31, 2006

Messy, but critics swept away by 'The Clean House'

"The Clean House," the new play by Pulitzer finalist and genius grant recipient Sarah Ruhl, last night opened Off-Broadway to praise from critics, although several called the work "messy."

Jill Clayburgh, Blair Brown and Vanessa Aspillaga share the stage with John Dossett and Concetta Tomei in the work that's both comedy and drama. It's set in the clean with house of a doctor and his wife, whose housekeeper isn't so keen on cleaning and would rather spend time trying to find the world's greatest joke. Messiness ensues.

"The Clean House" is scheduled to play through December 17 at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, located at 150 W. 65th St., map.

A sample of the reviews:

New York Times - "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."

Sun - "Sarah Ruhl, whose 'The Clean House' has finally reached New York after several major regional productions, has been hailed as the standard bearer of a glorious new strain of populist antinaturalism — Christopher Durang, Mary Zimmerman, John Guare, and Gabriel Garcià Márquez all rolled into one young, photogenic package. This is a lot with which to saddle any writer, let alone a 32-year-old, and the fact that 'The Clean House is merely very good will likely strike some as a disappointment. But Ms. Ruhl is the real deal, an arched-eyebrow optimist with the rare ability to embrace eccentricity without succumbing to whimsy."

Variety - "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. This funny, tender play has screwy poetry and penetrating wisdom, oddball humor, deadpan soap, operatic arias, fantasy, spirituality and a soaring sense of romance. Most of all, it has tremendous compassion."

Post - "The playwright, a MacArthur 'genius' grant winner, clearly has imagination to spare, as well as a humanistic, comedic approach that holds great promise. But for all its qualities, 'The Clean House' seems so pleased with itself that our appreciation feels redundant."

Daily News - "Bill Rauch, who directed the 2004 premiere of 'Clean House' at Yale, helms here. He expertly guides the cast through the play's mood swings. Aspillaga, with her expressive face and body, makes you laugh even when she tells jokes in Portuguese. Clayburgh has never been funnier or, thanks to costume designer Shigeru Yaji, more adorable. Dossett and Tomei share an operating-room scene that is intimate and lovely. Brown goes beautifully from uptight to willing to get her hands dirty."

Hollywood Reporter - " As Lane discovers when her surgeon husband (Dossett) falls in love with his patient Ana (Tomei), the life well-lived requires sexuality and humor, messiness and dirt, and even a good death. This might sound like the most obvious of metaphors, except that Ruhl writes poetically spare language and provides that rare theatrical element, true surprise."

Newark Star-Ledger - "Midway through an increasingly odd second act of 'The Clean House,' a woman seated in the row behind was overheard loudly sighing, 'I think I'm missing something.' Can't blame her.

Associated Press - "Bill Rauch has directed all these goings-on with a sure touch, blending the play's light and dark moments, its fantasy and reality, with surprising ease."

October 31, 2006 07:02 AM in Broadway

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