The Clean House at Goodman Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...The 32-year-old Ruhl's elegant and thoroughly enjoyable play "The Clean House" doesn't entirely live up to its first-act promise. But anyone attending Jessica Thebus' light and lovely new production at the Goodman Theatre will surely arrive at the conclusion that they're watching an early work from a major American playwright of the future."

SouthtownStar - Somewhat Recommended

"...While the performances are excellent, and Jessica Thebus' direction is well paced, the laughs seem forced. With an absurdist bent that brings to mind playwright Samuel Beckett's laughs-in-response-to-tragedy style, this "Clean House" leaves a bitter aftertaste."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...In Sarah Ruhl's wonderful play, a 2005 Pulitzer finalist, love and happiness blossom in the dirt of life's disorder. Jessica Thebus directs a crack cast with such wit and panache that the plot's surprising twist not only makes complete sense but resonates with a deep tenderness."

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...Under Jessica Thebus’ sprightly direction, however, motifs that might have proved puzzling or excessive—a distraught lover singlehandedly fetching home an Alaskan Yew tree in a vain effort to heal his beloved, for example—instead elicit the most comfortable of chuckles, thanks to Guenia Lemos’ irrepressible Matilde, whose candid observations keep us safely oriented from her first words ( recounting a funny—and probably bawdy—story in a language we may not understand, but applaud heartily, nonetheless)."

Time Out Chicago - Recommended

"...For all its celebration of metaphorical mess, Clean House is amazingly dirt-free. In small but telling moments, we see Virginia sorting through Lane and Charles’s underwear after they’re freshly laundered, never before. There are no embarrassing human stains in Ruhl’s tidy world, nothing that can’t come out with a whimsical gesture, like the supertitles that comment on the action: “They fall in love. They fall in love some more.” A tossed-off quip, and the world is manageable."

ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended

"...Ruhl’s script nicely moves from absurdity to realism to fantasy seamlessly to produce genuine laughter while offering a hopeful look at how humor can positively heal sickness both of the body and the soul. You’d be hard pressed to witness a finer acted show that balances the poignant moments with the wacky ones. Guena Lemos’ Matilde and Mary Beth Fisher’s Lane are especially excellent here."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended

"...Chicago native Sarah Ruhl is one of the hot new emerging playwrights in the contemporary theatre today, and the Goodman Theatre was understandably anxious to pounce on the Chicago Premiere of her Pulitzer Prize nominated play, "The Clean House". It is a decidedly strange and kooky piece, a modern absurdist comedy that teeter-totters between realism and fantasy. And it has a quartet of actresses who narrow like finely skilled surgeons into the frequently pungent wit and dramatic complexities."