The Clean House

Between travels and a new book deadline, it takes a soggy Sunday to return to blogging. It’s a new season at Portland Stage, their 46th, in fact. For the fifth time, I illustrated the whole season of theater posters. The Clean House by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl was tricky, as evidenced by the number of ideas it took for me to land the right image to suggest the layers of themes.

The story revolves around Lane, a busy doctor whose marriage is in doubt, and her hired help, Matilde, a young Brazilian woman more interested in telling the perfect joke than cleaning. I enjoy the rough stages of working out an idea, when it could become anything. My ideas all included a white couch and Matilde.

And in some cases, animated cleaning devices and stray items. Lane’s sister who LOVES to clean offers to help Matilde, their little secret. But they discover another secret, that Lane’s husband is having an affair.

The presence of a couple either kissing or embracing seemed important.

At this point I showed my ideas, and none of them hit the mark. Marketing Director Eileen Phelan said no French maid outfits, Matilde should simply wear black. Less emphasis on the sex in the background. I did another round of ideas.

These are loose, but showing both Lane and the husband and his new lover on the same white couch became closer to the complexity of relationships.

The rough with Matilde eating an apple got the go-ahead. Apple picking and eating apples play a strong metaphor in the script. I did a tighter sketch with a better take on the hand-lettered title.

When this was approved, I worked out the color. Since Portland Stage advertises the whole season in single ads, a consistent color palette is also important. Here’s the final version.

When the ad ran in the New Yorker, there was a stray high heel, like in some of my preliminary sketches. Perfect!

We saw the play on the very last performance. Superbly directed by Cait Robinson, all the magical time shifts, cultural conflicts, and character dynamics came seamlessly together. The set design by Bryce Cutler was stunning.

It didn’t look this clean by the end! The nimble performances leapt from comedy to grief in a moment. We left feeling a bit left out of the jokes, which were only suggested by riotous laughter.

My house is this: an antique cape on Peaks Island, with creaky floors and cobwebs in the corners. It will never be spotless or see the likes of a cleaning person but we play out our own stories just the same.

Thanks to Portland Stage for another season of compelling theater!