'The Underpants' is unmentionable fun
By MICHAEL SMITH, 3/7/2005
Monica Barczak (left) as Louise, Mike Grove as Cohen, Dwayne Thompson as Theo and Ray Martinez as Versati star in "The Underpants" at the Nightingale Theater. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World
Nightingale Theater's show is a smart, amusing romp
The time is March 1910. The setting is Dusseldorf, Germany. A woman on a city street, doing her patriotic duty by witnessing the king's procession, innocently stands on her tiptoes as her underpants fall down around her ankles.
Her husband can't believe this has happened -- to him. It is the opening of "The Underpants," Theater Club's smart production of comedian-film star-playwright Steve Martin's adaptation of a 1911 German farce, and it's the first of many witty moments that followed on opening night.
THEO -- They will blame me for having a wife who . . . can't even tie a tiny knot in two slender cords. . . . You know how I hate attention. A little attention and the next thing you know, I am out of a job. I am a government clerk. I blend in. You know why I never buy you a pretty dress, or hat, or new coat?
LOUISE -- Remind me.
THEO -- Because you are much too attractive for a man in my position. Your breasts, your legs, they draw the eyes. My job and your appearance do not go together. Everyone notices you. And it's your fault.
LOUISE -- My fault?
THEO -- The woman's fault, always.
LOUISE -- Here we go again.
THEO -- What are breasts? Harmless, utilitarian, lumps of flesh. But you squeeze them into a sweater and mountains move.
LOUISE -- I don't promote myself.
THEO -- You don't have to. Flesh speaks to men from under coats, under caftans, under furs, from igloos. There's always a small voice calling: I am here.
There's plenty of bawdy comedy in the play, originally written by Carl Sternheim and adapted in recent years by Martin. Those who fondly remember Heller Theater's production of Martin's brilliant "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" in 2001 will leave this staging with a smile on their faces as well.
The primary goal here is to make people laugh, but also to make an intelligent, interesting statement about gender politics and fame. At the heart of the show is a sex farce, but through George Romero's fast-paced, play-the-comedy-straight direction and a winning cast, we see what's under this initial layer.
The panty-drop event happens just before the play's beginning, and victim Louise Maske (Monica Barczak) isn't immediately aware whether anyone saw her plight. Most would have been looking at the king, she assumes.
It's not long before she discovers she has at least two new admirers and a bit of growing celebrity. This is not entirely unwelcome for this neglected newlywed, whose boorish, loud, penny-pinching husband (Dwayne Thompson) fears the expense of pregnancy, so the couple has had sex one time, on their wedding night a year ago.
The Maskes have a room to rent in their apartment, and two men apply: Versati (Ray Martinez), a vibrant, dark, handsome poet, and Cohen (Mike Grove), a barber who suffers from hypochondria and low self-esteem. This pair joins the husband in clearly illustrating how men have all the power in this traditionalist society, but the men are all boobs.
Louise's upstairs neighbor Gertrude (Missy Childs), a lusty lady who lives vicariously through her young friend, persuades Louise to take Versati as a lover.
"But my husband!" Louise exclaims to Versati. "Think of him as one point of the triangle: You the flint, me the fire, him the wet piece of wood," this man of romance coos in assuring her.
Gertrude will run interference to abet this affair, not that Theo Maske would notice.
"He only intends to use the room certain hours of the day," the hubby says of Versati. "I'll slip in and out without you knowing it," a leering Versati adds to the conversation in one of many sly lines of sexual innuendo.
While Versati's driving interest in Louise is fantasy, the barber shares the poet's room out of jealousy, hoping to hinder any opportunity for relations between the amorous couple, which he makes clear in his introduction to Versati.
"I, sir, am your prophylactic," Cohen proclaims.
The action is crisp and fun in a superb first act, a 50-minute effort that was complete in what seemed like a half-hour or less; it was that enjoyable. The intermission actually seemed like an intrusion.
The second act is also quite good, though less active and a bit repetitive on some themes. But this show is constantly amusing, and it's intriguing to consider how this adaptation offers Louise some level of empowerment that surely wasn't possible in Sternheim's 1910 Germany.
Though fame is fleeting, she is admirably in control.
All in the ensemble cast are good -- David Gray and Corey Douglas have cameo roles -- with Martinez a special joy in his delivery of poetic words of love, and Thompson a hoot as the hubby but occasionally delivering some words so loudly as to be unintelligible.
The work by the crew -- stage manager Veronica Combs, lighting designer John Cruncleton, costumer Tara Treiber and assistants Traci Conway and Madelyn Childs -- is also solid, with special mention going to Devin Meadows' theatrically subliminal underwear set design.
Theater Club's production of "The Underpants" continues at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 8 p.m. March 17-19 at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St. Tickets may be reserved by calling 557-8012 or via e-mail at theatreclubtulsa@yahoo.com.