In Which We See ACT's "Underpants" And Everyone Laughs

Whatever your flavor of funny, you'll find it in The Underpants: there's witty verbal repartee, non sequiturs, social faux pas, sexual innuendo, double and single entendres, slapstick, even some fart jokes and gross-out humor. And in the story of wide-eyed Louise's welcome to married life -- and its distractions -- there's the counterpoint of systemic sexism, bigotry. Theo belittles his wife, berates her, laughs in her face. That part is uncomfortably ahistorical.

The sharp-as-tacks performance from the whole cast lifts the play into must-see territory. This is not a play about the seething souls of its characters, but about capturing types perfectly, with just the right amount of cartoonish glee. Julie Briskman's homey, dreamy Louise is clearly the kind of woman that these kind of things "just happen to," while Richard Ziman's ruddy, blustering Theo is solely concerned with the proper way to do things.

Matthew Floyd Miller's preposterous poet Versati, who looks like he lifted Snidely Whiplash's moustache, parades around in "poetic colors," declaiming wildly. Marianne Owen, as the randy upstairs neighbor Gertrude, shakes her bustle like a dog's tail at the news that Versati has his eye set on Louise and spouts a stream of inappropriate commentary with elan.

David Pichette, as the barber Cohen, threads his way through anti-Semitic German society with the bald assertion that "it's Cohen with a K." At the sight of Louise's underpants, he became her lapdog, and Pichette underscores that physically with time rolling around on the floor. Wesley Rice, as the uber "cranky old geezer," has less stage time, but makes every second count.

Photo: Julie Briskman as Louise Maske and Richard Ziman as Theo Maske in Steve Martin’s adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s “The Underpants.” At ACT Theatre through November 12, 2006. Photo: Chris Bennion.