خانه‌ی پاکیزه

by Sarah Ruhl, مازیار معاونی (Translator)

Comedy / Casting: 1m, 4f / Scenery: Int. with inserts This extraordinary new play by an exciting new voice in the American drama was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. After its acclaimed run at Yale Repertory Theatre it was done to equal acclaim at several major theatres coast to coast before winding up off Broadway at Lincoln Center, where it had an extended run. The play takes place in what the author describes as "metaphysical Connecticut," mostly in the home of a married couple who are both doctors. They have hired a housekeeper named Matilde, an aspiring comedian from Brazil who's more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in house-cleaning. Lane, the lady of the house, has an eccentric sister named Virginia who's just nuts about house-cleaning. She and Matilde become fast friends, and Virginia takes over the cleaning while Matilde works on her jokes. Trouble comes when Lane's husband Charles reveals that he has found his soul mate, or "bashert" in a cancer patient named Anna, on whom he has operated. The actors who play Charles and Anna also play Matilde's parents in a series of dream-like memories, as we learn the story about how they literally killed each other with laughter, giving new meaning to the phrase, "I almost died laughing." 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.

"A rich work about big themes from a young playwright with an original and audacious voice." - Variety.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, School, Book Club, College

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Sarah Ruhl (born 1974) is an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career.

Originally, she intended to be a poet. However, after she studied under Paula Vogel at Brown University (A.B., 1997; M.F.A., 2001), she was persuaded to switch to playwriting. Her first play was The Dog Play, written in 1995 for one of Vogel's classes. Her roots in poetry can be seen in the way she uses language in her plays. She also did graduate work at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In September 2006, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. The announcement of that award stated: "Sarah Ruhl, 32, playwright, New York City. Playwright creating vivid and adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of daily life with mythic themes of love and war."

Reviews

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب رو خیلی اتفاقی توی کتابخونه پیدا کردم. حقیقتش دلیل خریدش قیمت مفتش و چاپ قدیم بودنش بود. ۳۹۰۰ تومن! چاپ سال ۹۱
اصلا انتظار نداشتم دقیقا سلیقه‌ی من باشه. واسه همینه که همیشه کتابخونه گردی حال می‌ده، چون یهو همچین کتابایی رو پیدا می‌کنی!

ژانر کتاب: کتاب از لحاظ ژانر می‌شه گفت درام، دارک کمدی، روان‌شناختی، سبک نوشتاری‌ش ، سوررئال، متافیزیک، ابزورد و مالیخولیاییه. پس به سلیقه‌ی هر کسی نمی‌خوره به نظرم.

خلاصه‌ی داستان:
کتاب درباره‌ی یه زن و شوهر پزشکه که یه مستخدم برزیلی دارن و این مستخدم که اسمش ماتیلد هست از تمیزکاری متنفره، از اون طرف خواهر لین (شخصیت اصلی زن که دکتره) وسواس تمیزکاری داره. و این جوری می‌شه که ویرجینیا میاد هر روز یواشکی خونه‌ی لین رو تمیز می‌کنه... و این دو حین تمیزکاری متوجه چیزی می‌شن...
خود داستان از خلاصه‌ای که من نوشتم قشنگ‌تره قطعا 🙈😹

شروع: یک‌شنبه 1401.05.09 ساعت 2:50 نصف شب
پایان: جمعه 1401.05.14 ساعت 2:55 بعد از ظهر
4 از 5 ستاره

[Patrick Tierney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic play with real work, genuine emotion, and clever brilliant staging that reads well from the page. Her best work.

[Rachel Verhoef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Grace Leneghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked up photos of past sets created for different productions of this play which provided me with a really interesting backdrop to picture with the action happening. Ruhl's writing style is so matter of fact with subtle hints of wit. She has quickly become one of my favorite playwrights.

[Franny Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. It was alright. Definitely some interesting stuff on the nature of love… how/why/when people fall in love.

[Luiza Parodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I think maybe heaven is a sea of untranslatable jokes. only everyone is laughing”

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as I saw it on a list of the best modern plays and noted it was a finalist for a Pulitzer. The play was much shorter than expected though very unique and enjoyable. I liked how Ruhl made notes at the beginning, detailing suggestions for directors to make modifications to the play in production (e.g., changing jokes). The use of displaying directions visually to your audience is also novel. I only hope I get to see the play on stage.

[Delphino Pattillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best play I’ve read in years. It’s a delight to experience as just text on the stage of your mind !

[Bernard Fournier · Rating 2 out of 5]

À relire (peut-être la version anglaise)

[Anna Hayman]

I think this is my favorite Sarah Ruhl play I've read so far.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this the first time eight years ago in my first college undergrad acting class. I thought it was pretentious and I didn’t care for it.

I reread it today. I knew so little about life at 18.

[Readerpop · Rating 2 out of 5]

huh

[nymeria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet read and I liked the softness and honesty of it

[Olivia Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play is hilarious! I’d love to see it performed. A great read!

[Celeste · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I don't understand a crucial theme of this book, or maybe that fact that I was in a bad place when I read it tainted my view of it, but honestly I find it to be well meaning but incredible cruel-hearted.

The book is about a woman who doesn't clean her house because she's a doctor and so she doesn't have much time. The fact that she doesn't clean her house indicates that she's close-minded (??). This somehow leads her husband (also a doctor) to have an affair with a more "open minded" woman who I assume cleans her own house. All of this is revealed in the first few pages of the book, from the perspective of the housemaid.
Some issues: No mention is made to the fact that her husband could, perhaps, clean the house, or the fact that the couple could open up a dialogue to clean the house together. The doctor-woman who does not clean the house is seen as taking the blame and as having some sort of deficit (emotionally/symbolically) which leads her husband to "go elsewhere", or have an affair. This, of course, is quite sexist. The fact that a woman who has dedicated her life to helping others by being a doctor is seen as lacking emotionally because she does not clean the house is a bit much.

There is also a bit of white-guilt condescension towards the housemaid. It's been a bit of time since I read the book but I believe the housemaid is Spanish and is seen as being wise in humor because of her country of origin. Though this of course can be good, the tone is pretty much the same as it is with the doctor-lady's cleanliness. It's something like, "life was simpler where I'm from so I can point out the humor of your sophistication." Implying that life is simpler somewhere else because it doesn't fit the same standards as another place is nonsensical (eg. apples and oranges).
I've learned a lot about gender roles since I've read The Clean House and so I can comment on the sexism but I have to admit my limits when it comes to its depictions of race. I can't say exactly what's wrong, but I can say that it seems a bit fishy.

Also, just as an aside and for a bit of context: The people who sang the praises of this book to me were young people who grew up with cleaning ladies and attended a 56,000$ a year liberal arts, make-your-own-major undergraduate college.

[Keith Moser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this because a local playhouse is doing this this year and I wanted to prepare for the auditions. Unfortunately, I could have looked at the character list in the front of the book and realized that the one 40-50-year-old man was out of my wheelhouse.

Still glad I read it. It's a good play able to be performed in a small space with limited set. There are some scene changes, but as I read it I imagined the different settings could easily be indicated with lighting and sound. The scenes are often very short, so I imagine costuming would have to be pretty simplistic as well (days often pass between scenes and I believe realistic costumes would create some very hectic scene changes).

The play's central character, Matilde, is a British cleaning lady whose parents both died laughing. She spends most of the play trying to create the funniest joke in the world and I was a little sad the play didn't deliver with what it ended up being (although I'm sure no matter what Sarah Ruhl would have written would have disappointed). Quick read if you have a few hours to kill.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I want to give this play three or four stars. It was a little confusing and I was a bit apprehensive going into reading it since I read some reviews and even the good ones were confusing.
I read the play and I wrote down tons of questions, but I think my questions are answers for the many metaphors in the play. At least I hope that I am correct in this assumption because if I am not and I am completely missing the points, then something must be wrong with how I read and I don't think that is the case. Or maybe it is just a fresh view on everything, which is possible. Or, it might not be a fresh view but how the author was hoping it was seen. I don't know, but the play is both confusing and a compelling read. It is also an enjoyable and quick read. I easily read the play over two days and that was only because I was busy. I could have read it in one day.

I do like all the metaphors that I found in the play. The stage directions are odd at times and I wish there had been a little bit more explanation of some of the things happening at times, but in general, I could understand.

[Dominic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for my Contemporary Women Playwrights course, and like most things I've read for this class so far, it's not a play I would seek out on my own. However, like most works I've read for this course, I also enjoyed it quite a bit.

I thought the female characters were quite strong and quite unique. I absolutely love to read Matilde's dialogue and her monologues that are peppered throughout the piece. Even though Matilde is supposed to be the "funny" one, I think her deadpan "straightwoman" reactions make Lane and Virginia the real comedians, even though it is not supposed to be.

Does using the idea of a clean home (the penultimate accomplishment of the traditional feminine gender role) as the chief symbol seem like a cheat in a play in which the female characters are constantly questioning their place in society and to the men in their life? Absolutely. But it's also pretty smart to do, because it is such a simple idea.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is implausible from beginning to end, and that's what also makes it pretty wonderful. It's less about the believability of the characters than their interactions, the way that people exist and live in the world. It's also very funny, particularly the interactions between Matilde, the housecleaner/maid, and her boss's sister, Virginia. Virginia comes over and cleans her sister's house instead of Matilde doing it, because cleaning makes Matilde sad (she would rather tell jokes) and it makes Virginia feel happy and content. I don't see all that much theatre and I don't read much fiction that isn't pretty realist, so this was a departure in both ways for me to read, but I really enjoyed it.

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend introduced me to Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room before staging a local production. I liked that play, but this is even better. There are five characters: wife and husband doctors, the wife's clean-crazy sister, her Brazilian maid who doesn't like to clean and is really a comedian, and the Argentinian woman whom the husband gives a mastectomy and with whom he falls in love. Clever staging, social satire that remains remarkably free of anger, and humor throughout make this a keeper. The stage directions had me giggling at times.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2005 runner-up for the Pulitzer, The Clean House is a little more out there than I usually prefer. But it’s grounded enough in realism – and hews close enough to traditional story arcs – that I loved what Ms. Ruhl did with this story of adultery, love, and apples.

This is how you do experimental theatre: with a foot remaining in the traditional. By giving her play a somewhat conservative grounding, Ms. Ruhl ascended to higher and more bizarre heights and gave audiences a bigger pay off. Recommended.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fanciful, romantic play. Ruhl always does a wonderful job of stretching the possible, making her plays feel like part reality, part myth, and The Clean House is no different. Constantly surprising and inventive, the discussions of love, death, and the jokes that make life bearable are intriguing and well explored. The division of acts is a little odd, act one feeling more like a simple prelude and set up to act two, where the REAL meat of the story lay, but beyond this dramaturgical oddity, I highly recommend it.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is it just me or is having a major character, a Brazilian maid, spend much of her time explaining how she's trying to come up with the perfect joke and then having her whisper the perfect joke in the ear of another character feel like a major cop-out? I guess the joke's on us! It's not the worst fault of the second act in Sarah Ruhl's "The Clean House" but it's the one that tipped the scales, and not in the play's favor.

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am fascinated by this play. And a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. A comedy yet tragic at the same time giving new meaning to the words, "I could die laughing..." A quest for the best joke in the midst of extreme sadness. A killer show. Challenging. Older women. Theatrical. Breaking the 4th wall. Extraordinary.

[Sundry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creatively constructed play. I would love to see a production of it.

What's really interesting here is the role of the house cleaner. She's pivotal to everything that happens between a pair of sisters.

[Chanel Earl]

Great play. It was quick and easy to read. I really enjoyed the relationship between Virgina and Mathilde and found some interesting things to think about. I imagine it is much better to watch this one, than to read it.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, this is now the fourth Ruhl play I have read ... and I haven't REALLY liked any of them, so this is probably the last one I'll try. Maybe they all play better than they read, but I just don't get the acclaim for her.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess people really do treat each other like this, but... Do they really justify it with concepts from religions that are not their own? I didn't buy that plot point, and I didn't buy Lane suddenly forgiving Ana.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

'They laugh until laughing makes them kiss. They kiss until kissing makes them laugh'.

More than the sum of its parts; what feels whimsical and slight while reading it feels almost life-changing by the end.