Tender performances bring humor & love to village playhouse’s ‘clean house’

By Steve Rank 

Published Oct. 7, 2019 

It has been said that the best things in life are worth waiting for. If we are lucky, we will find a soulmate whose love is pure, adventure with our friends and family, our place and purpose in this world, and maybe, if we’re lucky, that one joke that will make us die from laughing. In Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, which I had the pleasure of watching this past weekend with the Village Playhouse at Inspiration Studios, we see emotionally rich characters who are witnesses to all of the above. 

 The play opens with Matilde (a whimsical Emily Condon), a young woman from Brazil who has been hired by a doctor, Lane (an imposing Jackie Benka) to be a live-in maid, responsible for cleaning her house. The only problem? Matilde hates to clean! She is only happy when she is thinking of jokes, the end goal being to think of a joke that will make someone die from laughing. It is fortunate for her that Lane’s sister Virginia (an absolutely rich and delightful Kathy Landry) loves to clean. Virginia exclaims, “If it were not for the dust, I’d die.”. And so, Virginia persuades Matilde to leave the cleaning to her, while Matilde continues her quest to think of the perfect joke. This deal concocted by Matilde and Virginia sets off a chain of events, involving Lane’s surgeon husband Charles (Joseph Ellman) to leave her for an older woman Ana (a soulful and beautiful Sam Billeck) who Charles has recently performed a mastectomy on, resulting in the two falling in love instantly during Ana’s surgical consultation.   

The magic in Ruhl’s story is in the intrinsic weaving of all of the characters, and how each is searching for their place in a world fraught with death and uncertainty. While Lane is questioning her place as a healer, Virginia and Matilde are each coming to terms with what happiness feels and looks like to them, and what they will have to sacrifice to attain it. Often, we have to make our way through the chaos and disorder in order to find out what “clean” looks like in our lives. Director Scott Sorensen has assembled a cast who weaves through that predicament with great humor, loss, and quirkiness. 

 Landry, Condon, Benka and Billeck give absolute powerhouse performances. Landry’s performance in particular stands out. Landry is a warm and rich presence on stage, and her Virginia is a woman whose strength steers the show and the characters towards their resolution. Benka is formidable as the doctor who seems to be losing all control in her life. Benka conveys Lane’s sadness and bitterness at being abandoned with great effect, letting the audience glimpse a woman who searching for her place in the world.  Condon (who speaks with a Portuguese dialect, well coached by Tessa Larson) lends a fantastic spunk and energy as the maid whose life goal is to make people laugh. Condon’s role is daunting, and her performance captures the audience with her heartfelt energy and incredible humanity. Billeck is absolutely radiant in the role of Ana, a woman plagued with cancer. Billeck brings an earthy quality to the role, combined with a sparkle in her eye.  

Sorensen also serves as the production’s set designer. Sorensen’s set captures the feel of a clean yet empty house, that eventually is turned into chaos in a hilarious moment by Landry’s Virginia. The moments with lighting transitions halt the action of this production. The lighting design by Jennifer Lautz is clumsy, where actors move awkwardly in black outs. This could have been remedied by making the transitions part of the play, relying less on bringing the lights up and down but rather showing the characters making the natural progression through the play, and letting the audience view that.  

 The production runs through October 13th at Inspiration Studios in West Allis, located at 1500 S. 73rd St., 53204. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at www.villageplayhouse.org