description: Using Carl Sternheim's 1910 comedy, Steve Martin has reinvigorated a hilarious, laugh-out-loud farce - The Underpants. As the play opens, Theo Maske, an officious, puritanical bureaucrat, berates his wife, Louise, for allowing her titular underpants to fall to the ground at a parade for the king. Theo frets that he and Louise will be financially ruined and become social outcasts from the inevitable scandal. But before long, besotted men appear at Maske's door to rent a room - and, unnoticed by the proprietor, to seduce his wife. As scandal erupts into spectacle, the characters reflect, and reflect upon, our fascination with fame, our reliance on gender roles, and our enslavement by sex.
language: English
title: The Underpants: A Play by Carl Sternheim
titlecomplete: The Underpants: A Play by Carl Sternheim
genres: Fiction, Plays, Humor, Theatre, Drama, Comedy
ratings_count: 548
publisher: An Imprint of Hyperion