theatre by K a r e n Segal From Rags to...Penniless J u d i Price knows it's more than a little strange that as someone who writes, acts and directs comedy she cannot find much joy in attending comedic plays or even watching a sitcom on the boob tube. "Ultimately, they're never that funny to me." she insists in between sips of coffee and drags on a cigarette at a Lonsdale coffee shop. "Even my own shows don't always make me laugh.... I don't think I'm that good. But I love black comedy--The War of The Roses, for example." A n d it is in black comedy that Price is making her name and the name of her theatre company, Penniless Theatre, known. This will be the theatre's third year in the Vancouver Fringe Festival, which this year runs September 5-15. bringing the play Dim Laundry to audiences. Price wrote the black comedy, a bizarre tale of three women in history brought into the present time to save women from forever having to do laundry. If the three characters can recover Emily Carr's pink pajamas from the Museum of Soiled Laundry, the curse of the laundry lord will be broken. "Don't give it all away!" Price says, noting the frantic note-taking as she goes into detail about the three main characters. Suffice it to say that Mona Lisa spends a lot of her time in the play looking to get some new pictures taken of herself. Meanwhile, another character--Slim Campbell-- "is obsessed with being back on top of the political world." Price's tongue is so firmly rooted in cheek that it's almost hard to believe that she can move it long enough to talk about the play. "I love to laugh. Whenever you're exploring issues, everyone says it isn't funny to make fun. But in our case it becomes more provocative." There are no sets in Dirty Laundry, says Price, rather the actors take on the part of inanimate objects much of the time. "The washing machine talks, the fridge talks." Price loves physical comedy and uses it wherever she can. Last year she directed One-Sided Wall for Penniless Theatre, which was simply "45 minutes of non-stop physicality," and which Price adapted from a play written by a woman in an English psychiatric ward. The theme--women and crime and punishment--fits well with Penniless Theatre's mandate to explore women's issues. Formed in 1991 by Price and two others, the theatre is often active-- whether working in the Fringe or for International Women's Day or whatever comes up. "I feel that live theatre is an excellent vehicle for women's issues. We can explore women's issues in a provocative, humorous light." Price, a North Shore native and graduate of Carson Graham Secondary School, found it easy to pick out a name for the theatre company. "We had no money. After all. there's no money in live theatre." To make ends meet. Price works in the finance department at Capilano College. Even there she admits to injecting a little comedy into the atmosphere. "It can be dry," she notes. So if she finds a handy prop--like a bunch of green garbage bags filled with paper--she'll use them. In the case of the garbage bags, she set up a miniphysical comedy routine, with Price as the main act, unable to get out from behind the myriad of refuse. Not fired yet, she figures the act is appreciated. A s for her act in Dirty Laundry. Price figures she's as ready as she can be. "I prefer directing. In acting I don't feel like I have as much control. But 1 make myself act about once a year in order to remind myself how the actors' feel." The idea for Dirty Laundry evolved from a writing workshop that theatre member Aidon Young attended. "She got a brilliant idea about three women." So Price set out to write it. "I made Aidon come to my house and sit by my side for four days." When she was done. Price gave the script to friends for their perusal. The result, she says, is some pretty wacky stuff filled with physical comedy. "But that's okay. Aidon's a gymnast." -- Karen Segal is a North freelance writer. Vancouver Penniless Theatre cast members. From f-r: Layne Mack (with cigarette), judi Price, Claire Croome (sitting), Rob Bakewell, Marilyn Tripp and Aldon Young.