‘Clean House’ a comedy rollercoaster

Tom Titus

You may think you know where playwright Sarah Ruhl is taking you with

“The Clean House,” now in its West Coast premiere at South Coast

Repertory, but don’t bet on it.

Ruhl’s circuitous comedy invites the audience to sit down, hang on

and keep their head and arms inside the seat, as a group of

imaginative performers under the tutelage of director Kate Whoriskey

conducts the guided tour through some heretofore unchartered comedic

waters.

Housecleaning may be the jumping off point for Ruhl’s off-center

treatise, but the focus is on romantic attachments, specifically

those of a married doctor for one of his patients, being treated for

breast cancer.

The sparks that ignite between these two may seem preposterous --

as does the bulk of the play -- but this appears to be the

playwright’s general idea.

Given that we don’t really meet the philandering physician until

after intermission, the first act belongs to the Brazilian cleaning

lady, Adriana Sevan in a rollicking performance as a maid who’d

rather tell jokes -- in Portuguese -- than tend to her mops and

brooms.

This doesn’t set well with her employer -- Mary Beth Fisher,

excellent as the doctor’s discarded wife (herself a physician), who

can’t seem to get Matilde (Sevan) to cut the comedy and commence the

cleaning.

And it doesn’t help that Fisher’s sister (Mary Lou Rosato) enjoys

the heck out of housecleaning and is more than happy to take over

Matilde’s duties.

When finally we meet the errant doctor (the terrific Timothy

Landfield) and his new flame (Ivonne Coll in a rib-tickling

portrayal), the frustration, especially on Fisher’s part, really

starts to hit the fan.

But Ruhl gives Fisher’s character an immense dose of humanity,

resulting in her inviting the critically ill Coll into her home to

care for her while the good doctor is off in the mountains in search

of a life-giving tree.

Since Sevan and Rosato both are fluent in Portuguese, they chatter

contentedly while an overhead screen supplies the subtitles. But the

real “killer joke” at the play’s climax goes untranslated.

Rachel Hauck’s ultra-modern setting -- described as existing in a

“metaphysical Connecticut” -- is beautifully adaptable to represent

both the doctor’s home and her rival’s overhead realm, from which

apples are tossed that wind up on Fisher’s floor.

It is, in short, a wild and crazy type of comedy in which one must

expect the unexpected.

The sum and substance of “The Clean House” is that there isn’t

much of the latter, but the laughs come from so many directions that

playgoers probably won’t notice.

They may have to view the show twice to ascertain what actually

transpires between the punch lines.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.