Michele Riml (1967) is a critically acclaimed Canadian playwright from Vancouver in Canada. Her plays have been widely produced across Canada. They include Miss Teen, Under the Influence, Poster Boys, RAGE, Souvenirs, On the Edge, The Amaryllis and Henry and Alice: Into the Wild. In 2005 her play RAGE won the Sydney Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Play and was nominated for the 2008 Siminovitch Prize.
Her comedy Sexy Laundry has been translated into several languages and produced in Poland, Iceland, Germany, and New Zealand. It premiered at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival in 2002, and soon transferred to the Belfry Theatre where it was produced by the Arts Club Theatre Company in 2004.
Alice and Henry, who have been married for 25 years, decide to spend a quality weekend on their own. It was Alice’s idea, actually, to take a hotel room and to use the Sex for Dummies handbook to revitalize their love life and rekindle their initial passion. Alice has persuaded her husband Henry that they need a weekend break from home, off duties and everyday routine. She hopes to re-seduce him. In order to do so she has brought along a selection of sex toys. Henry, on the other hand, is perfectly happy to keep things as they are  ̶ comfy, safe and dull. He is content with his life and a relationship with his wife, and does not appreciate her dissatisfaction. As they go along they try to test the book and follow various pieces of advice suggested by it.What evolves is many an awkward situation that makes Alice and Henry feel stupid and uncomfortable. What materializes though is not their reignited passion, but many questions on the quality and purpose of their marriage. A romantic weekend does not follow a course designed by Alice. While arguing about their doubts, resentments, grudges and subdued notions, it turns out they have both become miserable, numb and dissatisfied because they have forgotten all the little things that used to make them happy in the beginning of their relationship.
Sexy Laundry is a comic and frank portrayal of a middle-aged couple desperately trying to keep their marriage alive and grow up spiritually while allowing their distinct individualities to remain intact. In the course of their romantic weekend, Alice and Henry who were meant to reignite their passion, discover many new things about themselves and their attitude to their marriage.
Riml takes a universal theme of a long-lasting marriage with all its ups and downs and presents it with titillating humour. She manages to stay impartial and frank in her portrayal of marital problems that arise in any long-lasting relationship. The play deals with what is important in life and in a relationship, and what to do when people get stuck, bored, and fed up. Sexy Laundry is more than a light-hearted comedy as it reveals many a truth about sharing a life with another person. Many a viewer listening to Alice and Henry's exchange will recognize their own issues, doubts and feelings that occur in any relationship.