Sarah Kesselring and Brent Whitted Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The Adobe Theater does farce well. Their small theater with its box-like setting is perfect for swift entrances and exits. The proximity of the audience makes it possible to read every actor's facial expressions. This clever play prompts sly, knowing glances, smirks, and broad laughter with its somewhat ribald action.

To say that The Adobe Theater does farce well is no small compliment. Finding actors with the ability to zing a punch line and play over-the-top while maintaining a semblance of human realism is difficult. Near novice director Tanner Sroufe has found five accomplished and experienced actors to bring The Underpants delightfully to life.

At the center of the action is a young couple, Theo and Louise Maske, who live a very predictable life in Dusseldorf. Theo is an exemplary civil servant and Louise a dutiful housewife until an incident at a parade for the King jolts their lives into chaos. Louise's panties fall down at the parade as the King passes by. This is an embarrassing, prurient action that signals a series of bawdy interactions with several peculiar gentlemen who come to rent a room from the Theo and Louise. Louise's underpants are the talk of the town and make her a near celebrity. Suddenly, Louise is a sex symbol!

Louise's upstairs neighbor, Gertrude, fans the flames of sexual desire and suggests that Louise should take a lover, since Theo is not "performing his husbandly duties." She suggests that jealousy will light a fire in Theo so they can start the family Louise wants. Men always want what other men find titillating, or so the adage goes.

The action of the first act flashes by as the wild poet and the sickly barber vie for Louise's hand in a series of loony, suggestive and wacky scenes. Brent Whitted is nearly perfect as Theo, the husband with hidden desires. His ability to switch from anxious bureaucrat to lustful companion is uncanny. Myles Hughes as Frank Versati, the poet and dreamer, is a delightful buffoon of a romantic lover. Drew Groves as the sickly barber is totally loony and perfect with one-liners. Kelly Hughes brings her own risqué physical observations to the mix. Through it all, Sarah Kesselring's Louise remains befuddled and yet lustful. This is truly a sex comedy laugh riot.

They say that no authors have a second act in them anymore. Here the second act is less fulfilling as the action turns to resolution. It seems that Theo and Louise need this kind of "shaking up" to revitalize their marriage. And they got what they needed and everyone moves on. Some theatre companies perform the play without an intermission. Some cutting of the second act and going without an intermission could be judicious.

All in all, The Adobe Theater has given us a delightful evening in the theatre. All the physical aspects of the play, costumes, set, sound, lights and props are in service of the production. Even the Wagnerian music is used to comic effect. Congratulations to the cast and crew of The Underpants.

The Underpants runs through June 29, 2025, at The Adobe Theater, 9813 4th Street NW , Albuquerque NM. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Thursdays, June 19 and 26 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $26, Discounted $22, Student $17. For tickets and information, please visit adobetheater.org or call 505-898-9222 .

Director and Set Designer-Tanner Sroufe, Costume Design- Jason Godin, Lighting Design-Lapis Kesselring, Stage Manager-Kristine Padilla. The Cast: Brent Whitted, Sarah Kesselring, Kelly Hughes, Myles Hughes, Drew Groves.