The Underpants
Written by Steve Martin
Syracuse Stage & Guild Hall
Syracuse Stage Directed by Bill Fennelly
Scenic Design by William Bloodgood
Costume Design by Raquel Barreto
Lighting Design by Thom Weaver
Sound Design by Sarah Pickett
Guild Hall Directed by Bill Fennelly
Scenic Design by William Bloodgood
Costume Design by Raquel Barreto
Lighting Design by Thom Weaver
Sound Design by Sarah Pickett
A Note from BillThe Underpants was a joyous, raucous exploration of sexual politics, marriage, desire, and the liberating possibilities of clowning. At Syracuse Stage, I assembled an extraordinary company of actor-clowns and reunited with my longtime collaborator Daniel Passer, whose work I first came to know through Cirque du Soleil. Together, we built a highly physical, vaudevillian world in which Steve Martin’s outrageous comedy could live at full volume while still leaving room for the tender human story underneath it.
At its heart, I came to see the play as a story about two young people trying to find each other inside a marriage that they do not yet fully understand. Beneath the sexual farce and escalating chaos was something I return to often in my work: the resilience of Love, and the possibility that two people can lose sight of one another, be profoundly tested, and still discover a path back.
The Syracuse production was embraced by audiences and critics, and was subsequently invited to Guild Hall in East Hampton, where we remounted it the following summer. Experiencing the same production with a radically different audience became a fascinating study in its own right. The play’s provocations around desire, fidelity, and marriage landed differently, a reminder that the conversation between a production and the community gathered to receive it is always part of the event, and sometimes part of the discovery.
