The Clean House

We saw The Clean House last evening in Bath. We thought 4 of the actors were superb, and made the best of a poor script which lacked pace. I think the actor who played the Portugese maid had too much to do and could not really sustain the role. Her inexperience showed through.

Comedy demands a light touch and it is quite bewildering for an audience to laugh when for much of the second act it is to do with a woman dying of breast cancer. Of course great comedy does take one on a journey and encompasses pathos as well but it needs to end on a reasonably high note. There were a few great lines but it was slow.The audience was really willing for it to be a success as well.

I would like to pick out Elinor Bron and Patricia Hodge in particular as doing their consummate best, but it was disappointing.

Gilly (Unverified), 22/03/08

---

Poignant, hilarious and at times verging on the ridiculous, Sarah Ruhl’s play, directed by John Dove, is a touching portrayal of five people’s attempts to grapple with the underlying realities in their lives – all under the roof of one spotlessly clean house.

The play is centred on Lane (played by Patricia Hodge), a highly-successful and busy doctor intent on having a clean house but with no time to clean it. She has employed Matilde, the Brazillian-born maid who hates cleaning and is desperate to swap her apron and gloves for a career as a comedienne; Virginia, meanwhile, is Lane’s sister and the epitome of domesticity, persuading Matilde to let her clean Lane’s house in secret. As the play unfolds, it emerges that Lane’s surgeon husband, Charles, is having an affair with his 67 year-old patient Ana, who is dying of breast cancer. The two are besotted with one another and claim to be soulmates. Shaken from her apparently seamless world of career success and marital stability, Lane is forced to take stock of her life and, ultimately, discover her own sense of compassion.

There are only 5 cast members, but each one is fantastic: Hodge is utterly convincing as the career-driven doctor, and Natalie Teena and Joanna McCallum, who play Matilde and Virginia respectively, are also excellent. A special mention must also go to Oliver Cotton and Elinor Bron, whose portrayal of the new-found lovers becomes increasingly moving as the play goes on.

It is easy to see why Ruhl’s play has been nominated for so many awards, not least because of some of the hilarious lines that form a bulk of the dialogue (‘If you don’t clean how do you know if you’ve made any progress in life?’; ‘My husband is like a well-placed sofa. He takes up just the right amount of space’). It is the way in which Ruhl so finely captures the various moods, situations and rationale of modern western life, combined with the superb cast of this production, that make this play a real joy to watch and a must-see if you can.

Chrissie Dreier (DI Reviewer), 04/03/08

---

We made the mistake of going to see this play at Oxford Playhouse because it was described as a comedy and starred Patricia Hodge. Since when was the death of a woman from breast cancer the subject of a comedy? This play had NOTHING to commend it, not even the lame excuse of social commentary. The acting was appalling with the exception of the Portuguese maid who at least tried. No warning of the subject matter and no consideration for people who have encountered this dreadful illness and are trying to have an evening of entertainment.The script was poor with few lines drawing laughs even if the subject matter had been acceptable.

Regina and Tony Lally (Unverified), 03/03/08

---