Steve Martin is best known to television viewers of a certain age as that guy in the white suit with the arrow through his head, or as one of the two brothers Festrunka pair of wild and crazy guys from Czechoslovakia. In The Underpants (which premiered in 2002), Martin shifts his focus to neighboring Austria, adapting a 1910 farce written by German Expressionist Carl Sternheim (1878 - 1942), whose literary journal Hyperion was the first to publish the stories of Franz Kafka. Sternheim's own works were later banned by the Nazis for their relentless skewering of the German bourgeoisie.
The action in The Underpants revolves around a pretty young lady, a pair of bloomers, and an all-too-frail drawstring. The play is a profound yet hilarious meditation on middle-class mores, the dangers of conformity, and the surprisingly not-so-modern phenomenon of instant celebrity.
The Underpants is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.
Setting: Dusseldorf, Germany, March 1910, Theo and Louise's flat. We see the combined living room/kitchen of an apartment. Two doors upstage allow us to see into two small bedrooms. There is a sign placed in a high window: Room for Rent
| Louise Maske . . . . | Calliope Porter |
| Theo Maske . . . . | Eric Ferguson |
| Gertrude Deuter . . . . | Ashley Stroupe |
| Frank Versati . . . . | Manan Arya |
| Benjamin Cohen . . . . | Tod Brun |
| Klinglehoff . . . . | Steve Sobelman |
| The King . . . . | Andy Ingersoll |