By: Steve Martin Publisher: Hyperion Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Hyperion Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: November 20, 2002 Release Date: November 20, 2002
Product Description: heobald Maske has an unusual problem: his wife's underpants won't stay on. One Sunday morning they fall to her ankles right in the middle of town-a public scandal! Mortified, Theo swears to keep her at home until she can find some less unruly undies. Amid this chaos he's trying to rent a room in their flat. The prospective lodgers have some underlying surprises of their own. In The Underpants, Steve Martin brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Carl Sternheim's classic 1910 farce. His hilarious new version was staged by Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, and opened in March '02 on Off-Broadway to critical acclaim.
The Underpants I wanted this book for a class and received it within 3 days...speedy delivery! Hilarious adaptation of a older German play written by Carl Sternheim. I really enjoyed reading and acting out scenes from this show.
Best play I have ever read If you're like me you stopped reading plays after high school or college english, and for good reason, they stunk. This remake by Steve Martin is well written and quite funny so buy it without fear, and perhaps put on a play for your friends and family. Well maybe not that, but if you were to choose a play for adults this would be it.
"Thank God your sluttishness has had no consequences." While Louise Maske is waiting for the king to pass by in Dusseldorf, 1910, the fastener on her underpants releases, and they fall about her ankles in public. In a matter of seconds, she has grabbed them and hidden them, and she expects that few, if any, people have noticed. Her husband Theo, however, a government clerk, is furious and fears that he may be fired from his job for her gaffe.
Adapting Carl Sternheim's sociopolitical farce from 1910 into a wildly burlesque romp appealing to a modern audience, actor/writer Steve Martin drops Sternheim's dated political satire and stresses instead the absurdity of instant fame and the unexpected opportunities it presents to people such as Louise Maske. The result might be termed an "anti-bedroom" farce, since the various sexual pairings and recombinations of characters which develop during this play, some of them devoutly wished for, remain outside the bedroom.
The Maskes have an extra bedroom in their apartment, and they quickly find themselves almost overrun with candidates who want to rent it after Louise's "episode." Versati, a poet, sees Louise as his muse, and he is anxious to have an affair with her (and she, with him), but after she rents the room to him, she discovers that Theo has also rented it to the sickly Benjamin Cohen, a barber who is willing to walk a long distance to his job, just so he can be in the presence of Louise. The room is subdivided, with each person paying almost full rent. In subsequent action, Louise's friend Gertrude gives Louise sexual advice while she also creates a newer, more beautiful set of undergarments for Louise. Two new characters appear, and several new opportunities for liaisons arise.
The humor is bold and full of sexual innuendo as the verbal jousting takes place, Theo remaining ignorant of the intentions of the renters (and Louise), while engaging in attempts at extracurricular cavorting of his own. The many double entendres, the opportunities for the actors to wink at the audience and use humorous gestures, the talking at cross-purposes, and the use of metaphor by one character to speak suggestively to another while leaving a third person in the dark, all add to the humor of this ribald farce. As the characters attempt to obey their innermost urges, the motif of the Loch Ness monster appears and repeats--"All is calm on the surface, but watch out for what's underneath. That's where the danger lies. Under. Underpants." An amusing comedy with obvious humor. n Mary Whipple
Unsoiled Underpants Having read some of Martin's works of fiction like "Shopgirl" and "The Plessure of My Company", I looked forward to reading his plays. While Martin's plays are often hard to find in book stores, they are worth finding.
"Underpants" is an adapted play that puts past views of sexuality into humorous perspective. When a woman's underwear is exposed in public, she becomes the subject of many men's lust. In reality, she only wants to be the subject of her husband's lust. The lustful admirers of the woman and her exposed panties become tenants in the same building, which brings in new income to the struggling family. While the extra-marital affairs never come to fruition, the plot does yield to a happy ending.
While I can not give Martin all of the credit for this work since it is an adaptation, I can say that Martin's humor gave it a delightful spin. I found myself laughing aloud at many points in the book. If sexual innuendo does not offend you, you should enjoy this work.
Not your typical Steve Martin I confess to not being familiar with the original German version of the play, but I appreciate the fact that Steve Martin was, and that he was in turn appreciative enough to think that it warranted an adaptation. Especially in an age where non-musical theater seems to be veering toward sentimentality or else trying too hard to prove itself to be edgy, it's great to read a play where the name of the game is as it always has been and should be - entertainment through engaging characters and interesting plot lines.
The play itself is very funny and retains enough of the "Old World" flavor to make it a unique piece of work when combined with the sensibilities of a sharp-witted writer like Martin. There were short sequences where the "old" Steve Martin humor snuck out, but overall he was very careful to present a new side of his taste that is as different from his other plays as his more recent films have been from his stand-up.
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