An award-winning insightful comedy about soul-clearing, sorting out relationships and tidying up a house that presents a metaphor for our gently messed-up lives. Suddenly nothing is like it used to be; nothing is as it should be. And therein lies both hope and surprise—the wisdom of day-to-day destinies and the mystery of love.
Today, perhaps the most acclaimed contemporary American playwright, Sarah Ruhl, received a well-deserved prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for this magnificent work with a tragicomic touch. We find ourselves in the magical space of one family. Lane's character is an exhausted doctor who, of course, has a housekeeper to clean the house. Unlike the cold housewife, this young girl is amusingly vivacious and exotic enough, or otherwise completely natural, which seems an eccentric quality in a world of alienated obsession with professional careers... The plot becomes apparent and develops when Virginia, Lane's sister, secretly takes over the housecleaning duties. And the shocker comes when Charles, Lane's husband, discovers true love outside the outwardly put-together house. And out of line even in such conventional cases of anticipated norms. Time to clean up properly; in short, let it be clean and crystal clear.