What Lies Beneath: 'The Underpants'

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IT'S THE DAY of the king's parade. All the king's horses and all the king's men are in town. Everyone in Dusseldorf is out. And they all just saw Louise Maske's underpants fall down.

"No one even noticed!" Louise (Allison McLemore) says to her husband, the ultra-uptight government clerk and sometimes-misogynist Theo (James Beneduce). But Louise is proven wrong when the incident stirs up a bit of madness in Dusseldorf, with everyone getting their respective panties in a twist.

Olney Theater's "The Underpants" has all the elements one might expect from a Steve Martin adaptation. The characters are goofy yet expressive, the sexual innuendos are unconcealed, the physical humor is fantastically wacky, and the jokes are relevant. Martin's version of Carl Sternheim's 1910 play contextualizes themes of sexual repression, religiosity, discrimination and women's rights in a manner that rings true -- and funny -- to modern audiences.

When Louise is bombarded by male attention following her undies-mishap, her repressed desires reflect the extent to which her husband oppresses her. Theo responds by exploiting that attention to rent the extra room in their home to Louise's quirky suitors.

The suitors introduce more social issues. Benjamin Cohen calls himself "Cohen-with-a-k" to hide the fact that he's Jewish, while Frank Versati shakes things up by suggesting that women deserve equal rights -- a concept Theo finds impossible to wrap his brain around.

Bruce Nelson is especially entertaining as Cohen; his mannerisms make the dimwitted, jealous hypochondriac seem simultaneously obnoxious and endearing.

Joan Rosenfels also shines as Louise's confidant, Gertrude, the hilarious upstairs neighbor who insists that Louise have an affair to satisfy the needs her husband has failed to meet. Rosenfels clearly recognizes that Gertrude is a great character and runs with it.

The cast responds to Martin's contemporary writing of an olde-timey scandal, finding the lighter side of serious, timeless issues.

» Olney Theater Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md.; through Oct. 19, $25-$48; 301-924-3400.

Written by Express contributor Suemedha Sood
Photo by Stan Barouh