Underpants

Two nights ago I went to see Underpants--a comedic play adapted by Steve Martin from Carl Sternheim's 1910 original--with my girlfriend at the ACT Theatre here in Seattle. The set is a living room/kitchen of a middle-aged man and his wife in circa 1900 Germany.

One man, and then another, show up to rent a room at Theo and Louise Maske's house. We soon learn that the reason for their appearance is the wife--she accidentally shows her underpants during a parade by the king. The fiasco then starts in earnest as sexual desire, ambition, and cunning show themselves in full force.

The play is very funny (my girlfriend noticed that women laughed more than men; I think the shrewdness of the jokes was confusing for the men :-) and performed brilliantly by the cast--Julie Briskman, Richard Ziman, David Pichette, Matthew Floyd Miller, Marianne Owen and Wesley Rice. I was especially impressed with the performance of David Pichette (photograph from another play). My girlfriend liked Julie Briskman (photograph) and Marianne Owen.

What I really like about ACT is that you have a great view no matter where you sit because the seats encircle the stage. Interestingly, my girlfriend and I were among the youngest in the crowd. I think the theater demographic is different in Seattle than in New York where I found the theater-going crowd to be much younger. Perhaps that's because not that many young people live downtown yet.