The Clean House Cleans Up Jan. 28

By Zachary Pincus-Roth
January 28, 2007

Sarah Ruhl's play The Clean House, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, closes Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater Jan. 28.

The work will stay alive, however, as it is scheduled to go up in many regional venues, including the Cleveland Playhouse beginning March 2, ACT Theatre beginning March 30, Trinity Rep beginning April 27 and Alley Theatre beginning April 27 as well.

The Clean House began previews Oct. 5 and opened Oct. 30. It was originally scheduled to play through Dec. 17, but was extended.

The closing of the play makes way for Christopher Shinn's Dying City, which moves into the theatre beginning Feb. 15 and stars Pablo Schreiber and Rebecca Brooksher.

*

The cast of The Clean House includes Vanessa Aspillaga, Blair Brown, Jill Clayburgh, John Dossett and Concetta Tomei.

Bill Rauch directs the production, which features sets by Christopher Acebo, costumes by Shigeru Yaji, lighting by Jim Ingalls and sound design and music by André Pluess.

Ruhl's work, about a well-ordered household that is turned upside down by a new maid who doesn't like to clean, won the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Since its premiere at Yale Rep in New Haven in 2004, the play has been seen at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Denver Center Theater Company, Cincinnati Playhouse and San Francisco's TheatreWorks.

Ruhl recently received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Her play Eurydice has been scheduled for Second Stage Theatre beginning May 29, 2007.