The cast and director of “The Clean House”: Rob Cameron, Michelle Rios, Cait Robinson (Director), Tod Randolph, Abigail Killeen and Jennifer Paredes. Photo by Mical Hutson, courtesy of Portland Stage Company

When Cait Robinson studied theater at Bowdoin College, she and her pals passed around an anthology of plays by Sarah Ruhl with great enthusiasm.

“It went around our campus theater department like the hottest news,” Robinson said. “It was like nothing we had ever read before, the way she was writing, the way she used language and imagery and poetry. It was like wildfire.”

Among other plays, the anthology included Ruhl’s “Eurydice” and “The Clean House.” At the time, “Eurydice” was the play that spoke to 20-year-olds. “The Clean House” would be a play that Robinson returned to as an adult.

Fifteen years later, Robinson is back in Maine directing Ruhl’s “The Clean House” at Portland Stage. It opens the 2019-’20 season this week and kicks off a busy fall of theater in and around Portland, with a new play at Good Theater, “Admissions,” about the role of privilege and power in the college admissions process, an original script about aging rockers and a dark comedy by Mad Horse about homelessness and gentrification.

Robinson, a freelance theater artist now living in New York, describes “The Clean House” as a comedy for adults. It’s a play about love and loss with lessons about forgiveness, and the complexities of an adult life, and what happens when that life begins unraveling. It premiered in 2004, and was a Pulitzer finalist for drama and helped Ruhl become a powerful voice in American theater.

On its surface, the play is about Lane and Charles, a married couple, both doctors, played by the Maine-based actors Abigail Killeen and Rob Cameron. There’s also Matilde, a Brazilian maid who detests cleaning; Virginia, a sister of Lane’s who loves cleaning; and Ana, an Argentinian woman and patient of Charles. Each character is dealing with grief and loss, each is on a different arc of healing, and each is struggling with an evolving identity. The tension comes as Lane and Charles navigate changes in their marriage and the presence of a cleaning lady who doesn’t clean very well.

It feels timely in today’s divisive environment because of its lessons about the bounty that awaits us if we dare to evolve, to look past cultural stereotypes and see people for who they actually are and not who we assume they are, Robinson said. “The play posits that people who are losing their identity, the person they thought they were – perhaps, the country they thought they were – is no longer. It doesn’t look like it used to. You have to reframe it, and the play posits that on the other side of that there is joy and healing and connection,” Robinson said. “By letting go of what you thought the rules were and who you thought you had to be, you can find something that is more full and lush and beautiful on the other side.”

The beauty of Ruhl’s play is she makes those points in poignant and subtle ways, leading the audience on a journey that begins in one place and ends somewhere else altogether. Cameron called Ruhl’s play “staggeringly beautiful because of the poetry, which you don’t get much in modern theater.” Killeen described it as “perplexing and delicate,” and having musicality despite its lack of music. “It’s poetry that is active and act-able,” she said.

Killeen promised that people who attend the play will be moved and surprised. “The audience will have a personal experience with this play, collectively. It will make you feel something you don’t expect.”

Good Theater

Soon after Brian Allen committed to “Admissions” by Joshua Harmon, the college admissions scandal broke, bringing questions about the role of wealth and privilege in that process to the fore. Earlier this month the actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to prison for paying money to improve her daughter’s test scores so she would be admitted to the elite college of her choice.

Valerie Perri stars as the admissions director in Good Theater’s “Admissions.” Photo courtesy of Good Theater

“Thank you, Felicity Huffman,” Allen said. “You turned this issue into front-page news.”

Good Theater, which presents its plays at the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland, opens “Admissions” on Oct. 2. But before that the theater company Allen co-founded celebrates his 60th birthday with “Life with Brian,” a revue-style show with embarrassing videos, funny sketches and poignant songs – and champagne and cake – at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the St. Lawrence.

The cast of celebrants includes two-time Tony Award-nominee Bob Stillman, Valerie Perri, who stars in “Admissions,” and local friends Steve Underwood, Lynne McGhee, Hannah Daly, Gusta Johnson, Shannon Thurston, Laura Houck, Jen Means, Amy Roche, Meredith Bruskin, Denise Poirier, Kathleen Kimball and Victoria Stubbs.

“Admissions” is a play about racial representation and indicts pious lefties whose ideals are upended when personal ambition runs into progressive values. In a review from 2018, The New York Times described Harmon’s play as a “no-holds-barred look at privilege, power and the perils of hypocrisy.”

The play centers on Sherri Rosen-Mason, head of admissions at a New England prep school, and her husband, the school’s headmaster. They are liberal and white, and fully committed to diversifying the student body of their school. They’ve done a good job recruiting non-white students, but their personal world is jolted when their son doesn’t get into Yale while a best friend does.

Allen directs a cast of mostly Maine actors: Griffin Carpenter, James Hoban, Amy Roche and Laura Houck. Perri, a New York actress whom Allen hired to sing in Broadway at Good Theater last year, plays the admissions director.

“Life With Brian,” 7:30 p.m Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; “Admissions,” Oct. 2-27, St. Lawrence Arts Center; goodtheater.com or (207) 835-0895.

‘Rock ‘n Roll’

Sean Ramey as Rake Donovan and Marie Stewart Harmon as Tia Bonti, Rake’s “old lady” in the play “Rock ‘n Roll” by Kevin O’Leary. Photo by Craig Robinson

“Rock ‘n Roll,” a new play by Portland actor and playwright Kevin O’Leary, is about friendship, faith and the power of music, 50 years after Woodstock. O’Leary wrote it over the course of many years, tapping his love of the Rolling Stones to provide the soundtrack and blueprint for his story.

The play opens Thursday in the studio theater at Portland Stage and runs through Oct. 6.

The on-stage story begins Dec. 18, 1969, the 26th birthday of Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Rake Donovan is hosting a party with his girlfriend and their friends in Keith’s honor, and to devour “Let it Bleed,” which had just come out. But the dawn of the 1970s bodes ill for these friends, who drift apart as the hopeful spirit of Woodstock begins to fade away.

The story continues 20 years later, on Dec. 18, 1989. The Stones are still at it, but Rake is slipping away and the friends have mostly dispersed.

“Rock ‘n Roll” is about friendship, trust and forgiveness. It stars Sean Ramey, Marie Stewart Harmon, Chris Davis, Peter Brown, Raheem Brooks and Robbie Harrison. O’Leary directs.

“Rock ‘n Roll,” Thursday, Sept. 26, through Oct. 6, Portland Stage Studio Theater, 25A Forest Ave; $25; rocknroll.brownpapertickets.com or 207-831-2434.

Mad Horse

Mad Horse Theatre Company opens its 34th season with “Radiant Vermin,” a play that director Jake Cote thinks is perfect for Portland. “I love this play because of the very smart way it deals with gentrification and homelessness, two issues tied hand in hand and absolutely ravishing Portland right now,” said Cote, a Mad Horse company member who is making his directorial debut with this play.

“Radiant Vermin” is about a young couple with a baby on the way and their quest to climb the property ladder. They want to raise their baby in a nice neighborhood and are willing to go to great lengths to make it happen. It opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 13 at the Mad Horse performance space at 24 Mosher St., South Portland.

The question posed by playwright Philip Ridley is how far do you go to get your dream home. Cote describes it as a dark comedy with sci-fi elements that explores how decent people ignore their consciences to get what they think they want. The crux of the play is the decision process of the couple as they navigate their offer, opportunity and dilemma.

“I am excited to hear people’s reactions,” Cote said. “I would love to hear everybody’s talk in the car on the way home.”

It’s set in England. Cote said company members talked about setting it in Portland “to hit the nail on the head a little bit more.” They decided not to because of the benefit of looking at the issue of gentrification from afar. Removing the play from its intended setting might take away from that perspective, he said.

It stars company member Allison McCall, and guests Joe Bearor and Dana Legawiec.

“Radiant Vermin,” opens Thursday, Sept. 26, through Oct. 13, Mad Horse Theatre, 24 Mosher St., South Portland; $20 to $23;  madhorse.com or 207-747-4148.