Trinity Rep in Providence will present Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House" from April 27 through June 3.  Directed by Laura Kepley, the production will be presented in the intimate Dowling Theater. 

In "The Clean House," Lane, a career-oriented doctor, hires a quirky Brazilian maid. The only problem is that the maid, Matilde, hates to clean but loves a good joke.  

Director Laura Kepley sums up this illuminating comedy as "an invitation to look at the state of our own houses – our love lives, our families, our relationships –and learn to embrace the chaos we can't control."

Sarah Ruhl, hailed by The New York Times as “a provocative new theatrical voice,” was recently named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.  She comments that the seed for the play grew from overhearing a comment at a cocktail party full of doctors.

“Walking into the room, I overheard a woman saying that her Brazilian cleaning lady was depressed and she didn’t want to clean and that she’s taken her to the hospital to get medication,” said Ruhl."The woman continued, 'I didn’t go to medical school to clean my own house.' Seizing upon that singular moment, Ruhl created an insightful play about humor, cleaning and ultimately about the passions that measure the value of a life.
 
Kepley adds, "As a playwright, Sarah takes us on such an imaginative, theatrical, and emotional journey. When planning this season, Curt Columbus and I spoke a lot about where the balance was in opening with 'Cherry Orchard 'and ending with 'The Clean House.' Both plays ask the question 'How do we respond when the worst thing in the world that we can imagine happening to us, happens?' Both Chekhov and Ruhl astonish us with their compassionate view of humanity. I don’t think it’s an accident that Ruhl, like Chekhov, has the characters, laughing, and laughing hard, through tears."  
 
The cast includes Trinity Rep company members Angela Brazil, William Damkoehler, Janice Duclos, Barbara Meek and Cynthia Strickland.
 
Ruhl’s plays include "The Clean House" (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); "Passion Play, a cycle" (The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center, a Helen Hayes Awards nomination for best new play); "Dead Man’s Cell Phone;" "Melancholy Play;" "Eurydice;" "Orlando" and "Late: a cowboy song."

Her plays have been produced at Lincoln Center Theater, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, The Wilma Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Madison Rep and the Piven Theatre, among others.

For tickets and information, stop by the Trinity Rep box office at 201 Washington Street, call 401-351-4242 or visit www.trinityrep.com. 
 
NOTE:  The first performance on April 27 at 8:00 p.m. has been designated Pay What You Can (PWYC), sponsored by The Rhode Island Lottery.  PWYC tickets go on sale at 7:00 p.m., limit one per person. 
 
Talkbacks will be held after every performance. 
Audiences are invited to share their response to the play, the production, the themes — no topic is too high or low, no opinion is right or wrong. A company or staff member will moderate talkbacks for approximately twenty minutes after each show.

-- OnStage Boston

 

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