The Underpants @ Rover Dramawerks
—Jill Sweeney
Not since Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl halftime show has a clothing malfunction caused this much drama.
The Underpants, adapted by comedy legend Steve Martin from Carl Sternheim’s 1910 play Die Hose (later retitled Der Riese (“The Giant”) when the original was deemed too scandalous), is a silly domestic farce about the unexpected fallout from a public panty drop. Rover Dramawerks’ production keeps the madcap moving and the silliness factor just high enough to keep the audience in stitches.
Civil servant Theo (Brian Hoffman) is aghast: his pretty new wife Louise (Jenny Wood), straining for a better view at the King’s parade, drops her bloomers in the public street. Louise assures him that no one saw, but Theo’s not convinced—and he fears the consequences to his career could be dire. Cue the knock on their door.
Louise’s panty snafu caught the eye of at least two men: the poet Versati (Weston Loy), who’s enraptured by Louise’s charms and seeks to rent the couples’ spare room so he and Louise can embark on an affair, and hypochondriac barber Cohen (Russell Sims), who decides to share the room to keep -Versati and Louise apart. Scheming old maid neighbor Gertrude (Penny Elaine), living vicariously through Louise, does everything she can to facilitate Versati and Louise’s affair. Shenanigans ensue (right under Theo’s oblivious nose) as doors open and shut, affections wax and wane, a deus ex machina appears, and we’re left to ponder the power and pitfalls of getting what we all secretly want—our fifteen minutes of fame.
Rover’s ensemble, under the deft hand of director Janette Oswald, has a lot of fun with this piece, in spite of some truly unfortunate moments of authentically period misogyny and anti-Semitism contained in the original text. Gender politics and instant, unearned notoriety (the internet’s specialty) make the story feel surprisingly topical at points, and the actors make the most of the play’s funniest set pieces. Elaine in particular is a comedic powerhouse as man-hungry Gertrude, brimming over with envy and lust: her trip to the icebox to cool certain body parts got the biggest laughs of the night. Hoffman’s bluff, hearty Theo is just the right mix of unearned confidence, ignorance, and earnestness; the impressive part of his performance is that we don’t actually hate him, despite ample reasons to do so.
Louise is a tough role, mixing a sort of proto-Manic Pixie Dream Girl quality with Scheming Sexpot, but Wood finds some nice comedic moments, especially with her two suitors. Loy’s Casanova-ish Versati and Sims’ nebbishy Cohen are a nice contrast, with Sims getting lots of laughs out of his sickly flailings. Eric Levy’s no-nonsense scientist was a great straight man for Wood’s Louise—he’s the only person looking to rent their room without any funny business, not that Louise realizes that at first. And he had a howlingly funny last line, the culmination of a sort of emotional Chekhov’s gun loaded upon his arrival. And Tony Magee charmed in his brief role as…well, I shouldn’t spoil the surprise.
The set, though minimal, grounded the piece in the period (kudos to Oswald, who designed it in addition to directing the piece), and the costumes from designer Karen Askew have a nice Alpine flair. The choice to use dark, exaggerated makeup for the actors is interesting, giving a sort of “silent movie” feel to the proceedings, especially for Wood’s Louise, channeling Clara Bow with her deep purple lips, smoky black eye makeup, and pencil thin brows.
All in all, a bit of fluff, but with more substance than it might seem on the surface. Rover Dramawerks’ The Underpants runs for one more weekend, so don’t get caught with your pants down—book your tickets now.
WHEN: Through August 20th
WHERE: The Cox Playhouse, 1517 H Ave, Plano, TX 75074
