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How high is housecleaning on your list of priorities?
For Matilde, a character in the play “The Clean House,” it’s fairly low — which is a trifle unusual, considering she’s been hired by a doctor named Lane to keep Lane’s house tidy.
Since Matilde would rather be a comedian, she concentrates on jokes, sometimes in her native Portuguese, rather than dusting and scouring.
Does the character do any chores?
“She polishes a spoon,” said Marcie Herman Riebe of Scranton, who plays the would-be comedian in The Actors Circle production of “The Clean House,” which continues through March 31 at Providence Playhouse in Scranton. Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
While Matilde is working on her comedy, Lane’s sister Virginia comes over to do the housework because she enjoys it.
“I can’t imagine anyone who would clean for fun,” Riebe said.
But this comedy by Sara Ruhl, which was a finalist in 2005 for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, invites audiences to imagine many things that might seem unusual.
How about a doctor (Lane) who becomes friends with the woman (Ana) for whom Lane’s husband (Charles, also a doctor) has left her?
Watch the way the play progresses, Susan Parrick, of Forty Fort said, and it will seem natural.
When you first meet Lane, the character she portrays, Parrick said, “She’s a very grounded professional and her life revolves around her work. She’s kind of oblivious to important things like family and relationships.”
“She thinks she has to be the best doctor, the best wife, the best sister. She feels internally that she is, but externally her actions do not exemplify that,” Parrick said.
“Her world is actually moving in black and white; she doesn’t realize the rainbow, the beauty of life. She gets up, goes to work exhausted and comes home exhausted. Then when her world falls apart, she wonders ‘Oh, my, what have I done wrong? I’ve been the best.’ “
“Where Lane is very sterile and reserved in her emotions,” Parrick said, “Ana (the other woman) is very colorful and extroverted.”
As Lane moves toward becoming more like Ana, Parrick said, “Lane’s mind is cluttered. She’s living in her head for a great period of the show. When she gradually lets these things out of her head, they present themselves as the compassion she shows and the forgiveness she shows.”
“Lane describes Ana as a person who glows,” director Eric Lutz said. “She tries to hate her and can’t.”
All four women — Lane, Ana, Matilde and Virginia — grow closer, Lutz said. “There’s one scene when all four of the women are sharing ice cream and it reminds me of the bond of ‘The Golden Girls.’ “
As the characters bond, and as Lane’s life moves away from black and white toward a rainbow, the set reflects that in the way her home appears.
“It starts out pristinely white and sterile, kind of like Lane,” Lutz said. “Then just like Lane, it gradually gets more cluttered. Things are being thrown into her impeccable house. It’s the course of letting yourself go and not having so much control.”
“It’s a beautiful story,” Riebe said. “It’s kind of like a foreign film, on stage. Sometimes foreign films are a little different from what we expect. It’s kind of fantastical.”
IF YOU GO
Who: Actors Circle
What: ‘The Clean House’
When: March 21 through March 31 with shows Thursdays, Fridays, Satudays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Where: Providence Playhouse, 1256 Providence Road, Scranton
Tickets: $12, general, $10 seniors, $8 students
Reservations: 570-342-9707, or email [email protected].
