• ETC presents The Clean House

Review By FRANCES RIVETTI, FOR THE ARGUS-COURIER, Published: Wednesday, Sep 5, 2007

Life in a ‘Clean House’
Cinnabar Theater’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s comedy ‘The Clean House’ takes a look at American sociology and its multi-layered class system

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s explosive and compassionate tale of mirth, fury, love and mortality is a striking study of modern American sociology and our multi-layered class system. Produced to widespread acclaim across the United States and Europe, this latest rendition at Cinnabar Theater should comfortably rank right up there with major metropolitan productions of this exuberant 2005 Pulitzer-shortlist play.

Full review here...

Stage review: 'The Clean House' at Cinnabar
By David Templeton, The Bohemian, September 5-11, 2007

With Cinnabar Theater's pitch-perfect new production, solidly directed by actress Tara Blau, Cinnabar launches its new season with a big, beautiful bang, assembling a first-rate cast to populate Ruhl's clever exploration of love, death, laughter and housecleaning. Inventively structured and packed with surprises, the play blends magical realism and dreamlike passages with dialogue that is simultaneously fresh, coarse, inspiring and amusing. More...

Reviewed by David Kashimba

Laura Jorgensen is hilarious as Virginia, an obsessive-compulsive house cleaner in Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House now playing at Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater. She is so obsessive about cleaning that after finishing the cleaning of her house early in the afternoon, she feels lost, empty, suicidal!...

But there is a lot more to this fine comedy than many good laughs. It explores the coming together of different cultures and two very different sisters. But it doesn’t stop there. It even delves into love and death, and it does it all with a wonderful sense of humor and humanity.

Full review here...

The Clean House, San Francisco Tribune
Una graciosa comedia que muestra los benéficos de tener una casa siempre limpia.

El teatro Cinnabar empieza su nueva temporada teatral con una divertida comedia titulad La casa limpia, en donde la ama de limpieza odia limpiar y solo se dedica a crear nuevos chistes.

The Clean House es el caso de una doctora tiene problemas emocionales y familiares por un lado, por el otro su ama de llaves, odia limpiar. Ella es un comediante brasilera que prefiere contar chistes, e incluso mato a sus padres de risa.

Su esposo por otro lado, dice que ha encontrado su alma gemela en una paciente de cáncer. Mientras tanto la hermana de Lane se entre a su casa para limpiarla y ayudar a la brasilera para que escriba comedias.

Mas aqui...

Written by Sarah Ruhl
Director: Tara Blau

Lane, a brilliant physician, has troubles. For one, her housekeeper, Matilde, hates to clean. Instead this Brazilian comedienne, whose parents literally “died laughing,” prefers to use her energy trying to pen the perfect joke. As if “bad help” isn’t enough, Lane’s surgeon husband reveals he has found his soul mate, or "bashert" in a cancer patient named Anna. All the while Lane’s eccentric sister is sneaking into her home to clean allowing Matilde to scribble away on her stand-up routine. This theatrical and wildly funny play is a whimsical and poignant look at class, comedy and the true nature of love.

"Fresh, funny ... a memorable play, imbued with a melancholy but somehow comforting philosophy: that the messes and disappointments of life are as much a part of its beauty as romantic love and chocolate ice cream, and a perfect punch line can be as sublime as the most wrenchingly lovely aria." — NY Times.

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Performance Dates