Everyone in this play should be able to tell a really good joke.

So says the playwright's note in the script for "The Clean House." The lead character comes out on stage, tells a joke, albeit in Portuguese, and the stage is set.

Playwright Sarah Ruhl, who at 33 is young enough to make you question what you're doing with your life, has a mantle full of awards for her playwriting, including the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Pen Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

But the idea for "Clean House," being produced by The Salt Lake Acting Company, came to Ruhl at a cocktail party.

Director Keven Myhre says, laughing, "She overheard the conversation between two doctors. One said, 'The maid is depressed and can't clean the house.' And the other responds with, 'Why don't you medicate her?' That's just a wonderful starting point for this play. It is warmhearted and it is fantastical and it celebrates love and forgiveness."

Meet Matilde. A Brazilian cleaning lady who has decided that cleaning makes her sad and she'd rather spend her time thinking up the perfect joke. She works for Lane, a doctor who "did not go to medical school to clean her own house."

Then there is Virginia, Lane's sister. Virginia thinks cleaning is a privilege and her own house is completely clean by 3:12 every afternoon.

When the women figure out that Lane's husband, also a doctor, has found someone else, and not the cliche young, beautiful, nurse, they begin a journey of love, forgiveness and laughter.

"Laughter is such an important part of the play. Whether you have Lane who can't laugh or Virginia, who doesn't like her laugh. Matilde is trying to find the perfect joke and how that affected her life with her parents who laugh heartily," Myhre said. "I mean, when was the last time you really laughed?"

There's also a fantasy element in "The Clean House," which is just what Camila Borrero (Matilde) loves about the play. "This is an amazing theater piece. Plays now are written like a movie script. This piece is so theatrical in its devices. There's something so pure about it — it's great live theater."

Borrero, originally from Brazil and reared in Bogota, Colombia, moved to Salt Lake City when she was 17 years old to go through the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah.

The role of Matilde requires an actress who not only can pull off the comedy but can also speak Portuguese. Borrero, whose family left Brazil when she was quite young, spoke it at home.