Theatre
Dusty maidens
by Faith Oxenbridge
Pass round the cigars – the Fortune’s first successful delivery for 2007 is The Clean House. As 6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks miscarried in February at an estimated cost of up to $100,000, the arrival of this baby must be a consolation to Mother Fortune. It’s smart, unpredictable, with a vibrant and quirky sense of humour.
The Clean House is difficult to summarise, but here goes. Lane, a doctor, has a Brazilian maid who is bent on finding the perfect joke and does not want to clean. Maid Matilda feels dirty if she has not laughed for a while. She feels sad if she cleans. Enter Lane’s sister, Virginia, whose motto is: “If it were not for dust I think I would die.” Virginia and Matilda make a secret arrangement in which Virginia cleans and Matilda … works on her jokes. Complications arise when Lane’s husband, a surgeon, leaves her for a beguiling masectomy patient.
As the maid, Anna Henare tells most of her jokes in Portuguese – apparently they don’t translate – and uses slapstick and deadpanning to make them absurdly funny. Jude Gibson and Hilary Norris give complementary performances as the sisters. I’m guessing that author Sarah Ruhl is a playful sprite, given the many surreal elements in this work. We have US director Jef Hall-Flavin to thank for cutting the umbilical cord on this extraordinary New Zealand premiere. It’s at the Fortune, Dunedin, until April 21. – Anna Chinn
Pork crackling, politics and pathos: Joyful and Triumphant will continue to warm the hearts of New Zealanders long after they’ve forgotten the sliced hard-boiled eggs in the Christmas salad, Spanish cream for pudding and Rob Muldoon and Rogernomics. Besides clever dialogue and a cracking pace, Robert Lord’s play – which follows the Bishop family through 40 years of Christmas lunches – has beautifully developed characters that evolve in ways we all recognise and understand.
In the Court’s new production, Lynda Milligan gives a solid performance as the ever-patient and accommodating Mum, but Sandra Rasmussen delivers the finest acting as the put-upon Rose, who tries to leave home at the age of 48 but stays to look after her ageing parents. Rasmussen grew her character sensitively and unsentimentally from a hopeful, openhearted girl into a middle-aged woman with equal parts of anger and acquiescence. At the Court, Christchurch, until April 28.
