Less well-known than his associate Franz Wedekind, Carl Sternheim's contribution to German Expressionist theatre is largely remembered for his "Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Class", which use traditional farce to critique the German bourgeois. Best known of this trilogy is "Die Hose", an ambiguous reference first translated into English as "The Bloomers", but since Eric Bentley's version in the '60s usually referred to as "The Underpants." Steve Martin's recent adaptation, which has played across the country in both red and blue states, concentrates on the central comic premise that the whole rigamarole is set off when a young wife accidentally drops her drawers while attending a royal parade. Martin reduces Sternheim's larger cast of associated characters to a minimum. The wife, Louise is played by Caroline Lawton seen at the Publick this summer as Lady Croom in "Arcadia" and as the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus in "The Comedy of Errors." Naive Louise is married to a stolid government clerk at least twenty years her senior. Her husband, Theobald Maske, gives IRNE awardee Steven Barkhimer another unique role, quite different from either Lord Capulet, which he did for the New Rep this fall or his recent turn as the Ghost of Christmas Present there as well.
Having witnessed Louise's embarrassment, two very different men show up to rent the Maske's spare room. The first is Frank Versati, a wealthy poet, played by Lewis D. Wheeler, who was also in "Arcadia" and "Comedy of Errors", and was last seen at the Lyric as all three clones in "A Number." This bombastic and extravagant charmer sweeps the innocent off her feet, proposing an illicit affair. As we learn early in the play, Theo hasn't made love to Louise since their wedding night a year ago, because they haven't enough money saved up to afford to raise a child. That's why they're renting out the room. This vital information comes by way of gossip between Louise and her neighbor, Gertrude, played wryly by Stephanie Clayman, back at the Lyric once again. Gertrude, an older spinster, encourages Louise in her tentative romantic adventure and even has a brief fling of her own.
The plot begins to boil when Theo returns from his constitutional having also rented the room to Benjamin Cohen, a barber, played by IRNE winner Neil A. Casey, seen this fall in Speakeasy's "Theatre District". Cohen, who tells Theo his nAme is spelled with a "K," has also taken a shine to Louise, who's flattered if a bit confused by her new fame. A third potential tenant, the scientist Klinglehoff, played by Robert Bonotto shows up briefly in the first act, but becomes central to the play's increasingly absurd climax. Each of these three men allows Lawton to expand her character beyond the rigid confines of her marriage to Theo, who's known her since she was a child. The play becomes more about her than the original which made more of Theo as a bourgeois exemplar. O' Tempora, O' Mores.
Theo's practicality leads him to divide the room in two and rent to both Versati and Cohen, completely unaware of their interest in his wife, for whom he has little romantic feeling, it seems. That wouldn't be suit his prudent Germanic sensibility. Martin has reduced the play to its farcical structure and managed to create appropriate comic types, even though he's changed some of their names. What's only hinted at however is the philosophical bases from which Sternheim built the originals. Versati was originally Scarron a Nietzchean aristocrat, an Ubermensch who considers himself above the rigid society in which Theo has found his niche. Cohen was Mandelstam, less obviously Jewish but still an outsider, who espoused social Darwinism. In the hands of Wheeler and Casey, these two become likeable buffoons more than foils for Theo's staunch Teutonic thickness. His marriage such as it is doesn't really seem threatened, though Louise will may never be the same after her brief moment in the limelight.
The resulting sex comedy is more entertaining than Sternheim's somewhat sour social critique, and his adaptation ends with a bit of fantasy, as does Martin's first successful effort, "Picasso at the Lapine Agile." It might however be fairer to label this piece as "based" on rather than "adapted" from. Director Daniel Gidron has made good use of his experienced cast, letting each find physical expression for the comedy, more in the world of Feydeau than the darker reaches of Expressionism which began with "Wozeck" and exploded with Brecht. The men are perhaps more stereotyped than the women, but that's more or less traditional. Gail Astrid Buckley has once again produced an excellent set of actable period costumes. Cristina Todesco, who did the set for Lyric's IRNE winning "A Little Night Music", has created a simple and elegant design for Lyric's 3/4 stage, starting with a circular parquet floor with just enough furniture and a open background which doesn't dominate the acting area. Eleanor Moore's lighting once again fits the action, and the uncredited sound makes use of familiar Strauss and Wagner pieces which complement the play. The Lyric Stage Company has again successfully mounted a sparkling farce with a fresh attitude.
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