The inaccessibility of undergarments is usually the source of their allure. However, the unanticipated exposure of a young woman's panties during a parade creates quite a stir in The Underpants.
This month, Playmakers Repertory Company brings The Underpants to Chapel Hill. Written by Carl Sternheim in 1910 and recently adapted by Steve Martin, the play puts a hilarious spin on an otherwise stern and proper era, building absurd situations from an absurd mishap.
The adaptation preserves the satirical origins of the play through its mockery of the German bourgeoisie and the fad of celebrity. Steve Martin supplies it with a more modern vernacular, saturating the dialog with suggestive innuendo that raised a few eyebrows in the audience.
Director Gene Saks, a three-time Tony Award-winner and this year's recipient of the Playmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement, said he was drawn to the setting and period of the play, as well as its comic uniqueness.
"I like not only the comedy of it, but the depth of it for a farce comedy," he said. "It has a great deal of depth sociologically and psychologically and you don't find that often in a farce play."
He also pointed out that Steve Martin is a jack-of-all-trades in the comic world. Though best known as an actor, Martin is also a talented writer who has published work in The New Yorker and a variety of other magazines.
"He is a very clever, bright young man," Saks said. "I think people who like any of Steve Martin's comedy will appreciate this."
The production's dynamic cast captures the essence of the era, and the strangeness of their stage interactions only adds to the play's many levels of humor.
"We've had a great deal of fun with it because the cast is very creative and I appreciate their humor and they appreciate mine, so we laugh a lot," Saks said.
Saks also praised his assistant, Marshall Botvinick, Trinity '06, two-time recipient of the Department of Theater Studies Award for Excellence in Directing.
The Underpants achieves a sophisticated level of social satire within a historical context while maintaining lighthearted humor with mass appeal.
"The big mystery is how will an audience take any play, will they understand what you're trying to do?" Saks said. "I hope that the audience we get down here, which I would say is an educated audience, will appreciate this."
The Underpants will be showing at the Paul Green Theatre in Chapel Hill until Oct.29. Shows run at 8 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
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