The Clean House and Other Plays

Sarah Ruhl is a fascinating author...fascinating in that she superficially looks like a cross between Pinter and Beckett. Fascinating in that her work appears quite profound and important. Fascinating in that close inspection actually reveals that her work has only a superficial appearance of meaning and importance, and that in fact, it is quite pretentious. And she appears to hate professional women (which is supported by some of the things she has said in interviews). And then, just when you think all is hopeless, she gives you a marvelous work, tucked in at the end of the book to ensure leaving a good feeling, in the form of Eurydice. Talking stones, rooms of string, and raining elevators are just a few of the things you will find in show more the final play, the one gem in a book of plays that want to be able to live up to that work. In short, skip the book, get an acting edition of Eurydice, and devote an hour to reading that. Leave the rest on the shelf - especially Clean House, in which she stereotypes every character and leaves you feeling like your own house needs to be cleaned, so you can throw out all your Sarah Ruhl books. show less

First, I have seen "Passion Play" and "In the Next Room, or, the vibrator play" of Sarah Ruhl's oeuvre. I have read only the latter, and "Eurydice".

Second, "In the Next Room" is one of the best plays of the past ten years. I have very little doubt that Sarah Ruhl is one of the most exciting American playwrights of the early twenty-first century.

So when I say this collection does not live up to her talent, believe me.

"Eurydice" is interesting, but I suspect it plays infinitely better than it reads. "Late: a Cowboy Song" is interesting, but I suspect the parts that interest me -- namely, the gender issues around Blue's intersexuality and Red's gender performance are not the parts which get emphasized in production (one day I will stop show more trying to read stories that people didn't write). "Melancholy Play" I really shouldn't say anything about, because Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is a work I find deeply troubling and fascinating in roughly equal measure and I suspect that my feeeeeeelings about it are bleeding over, because I found "Melancholy Play" to be really distressing but I can't say exactly why. "The Clean House" did not leave me with much of an impression.

Ehhhhhhh. show less

Originally posted on my blog


Let me tell you something about the Midwest. The Midwest is hardcore. You grow up there, like I did, you end up either hardcore normal or hardcore weird.


So when I read the recent New Yorker piece about Sarah Ruhl, who falls into the latter category, I actually put down the magazine halfway through the piece to run to the bookstore to buy a collection of her plays -- the last copy on the shelf. I was drawn to the gentle absurdism described in the article -- wackiness to amuse, instruct, make a point. Absurdism you can relate to.


The collection did not disappoint. In The Clean House, others clean house while the maid tries to think of the perfect joke. In Late: A Cowboy song, a man, a woman and a manly woman show more move at a horse's pace to a few important realizations. In Melancholy Play, which I think is my favorite so far, melancholy is sexy and tears are meant to be saved. I haven't read Eurydice yet -- I may wait until after seeing it produced by ACT Theatre in Seattle later this year.


Ruhl's first intent was to be a poet, and this comes through in her plays as well. There is a musicality about the dialogue, a lilt. The stage directions are like little presents stashed throughout the play, sweet, suggestive: "It would be nice if the actress playing Red could play the guitar." "Virginia has a deep impulse to order the universe." "An intermission, or not. Preferably not."


In the New Yorker piece, Ruhl talks about the importance of lightness, yeah. Her plays are often described as comedies, and there is a comedic element to each one, but they are too earnest to be dismissed as whimsical jokes. When someone turns into an almond, there is a reason. show less

A wonderful collection of four plays. This was my first time reading Ruhl, and I very much enjoyed her work. Humor, word-play and surrealism are all lovely calling cards of this volume.

This is the first collection of Sarah Ruhl's plays I have read. None in the collection quite match up to the surreal beauty of The Clean House but my favorite, mostly for it's deft handling of the theme of identity and gender identity in contemporary America, was Late: A Cowboy Song. If you're looking to read more modern American playwrights check out Sarah Ruhl. Do it!

This volume is the first publication of Sarah Ruhl, “a playwright with a unique comic voice, perspective and sense of theater,” (Variety) who is fast leaving her mark on the American stage. In the award-winning Clean House—a play of uncommon romance and uncommon comedy—a maid who hates cleaning dreams about creating the perfect joke, while a doctor who treats cancer leaves his heart inside one of his patients. This volume also includes Eurydice, Ruhl’s reinvention of the tragic Greek tale of love and loss; Late, a cowboy song and Melancholy Play

Sarah Ruhl is one of the best new playwrights working to day. Her plays are poetic, lyrical, and gently absurd. My favorites were Melancholy Play and Eurydice.