The Underpants, April 24, 2005, Alley Theater's Hubbard Stage

Louise: It only lasted two seconds! Theo: Haven't you heard, time is relative! (Holding up newspaper with E=MC2 as headline)

So begins Steve Martin's (yes, that Steve Martin) adaptation of Carl Sternheim's Die Hose, a farce about a woman (Louise) whose underpants fall down in public and how the event reverberates in her life. The defining event happens just before the play opens, and we see the reaction as Louise and Theo (her husband) return home. Eventually two men show up to rent the advertised room in Louise and Theo's apartment; both make excuses for wanting the room, but their real reason is that they were both inspired by Louise's downfall, so to speak. The play was written in 1911 and is set in Germany, 1910. Carl Sternheim has the distinction of being "the only playwright whose work was banned by both the Imperial German and Nazi authorities." The actors, mostly from the Alley Theater Resident Company of Actors (as opposed to their resident company of circus performers?), were superb. While The Underpants does not exhibit as much of Steve Martin's voice as his original Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1996), his touch is evident everywhere. The tone is a combination of the playful but absurd (think his movie Roxanne) and astute sarcasm, with a touch of serious subject matter thrown in for good measure. (Speaking of Roxanne, that scene where he describes his abduction by aliens to an old woman is the best!) One of Louise's admirers, when accused of renting the room under false pretenses asks, "How can a pretense be anything other than false?" The sexual innuendos in this production are not subtle; at one point Louise holds up a sausage and asks Theo, "How would you like your wiener cooked?" Hilarious all the way through, The Underpants ends on a surprisingly empowering note. [5-18-05] Just watched Roxanne. "You know what a quark is?" "I used to, I just forgot right now."