The Clean House

This is the first time a Sarah Ruhl play has been produced in the Twin Cities since the thirty-something hotshot’s Eurydice became the hit of Off-Broadway this summer. The Clean House is an earlier product of Ruhl’s fantastical imagination, and one with an important distinction from Eurydice: Even though it was a Pulitzer finalist in 2005, it drew divided criticism.

The New York Times raved raved, but The New Yorker’s theater critic smelled a stereotype in the play’s heroine, Matilde, a depressive Brazilian maid who loves wisecracking but doesn’t particularly relish housework. What follows, no matter what your thoughts on the Latina character, is a robust satire on labor relations: Matilde’s employer, a successful American doctor named Lane, goes so far as to feed her servant antidepressants. But Matilde despairs whenever distracted from her quest to form the perfect joke.

Mixed Blood Theater, 1501 S. Fourth St., Minneapolis; 612-338-6131.