We’re told at a young age not to judge a book by its cover, that we should discount surface trappings and instead focus on content and meaning. That’s all well and good, but sometimes a title alone can inspire gloom fully out of context. The Panties, the Partner, and the Profit is such a moniker, one so ludicrous and ungainly that my suspicions were on high alert before I took my seat in the Lansburgh Theatre. Alas, the show delivered accordingly. I can’t remember the last production that has frustrated me so thoroughly.
Where to start with this wisp of a tale and its jumble of themes, which fight one another like magnets pointed in the wrong direction? In this proudly absurdist show, laughter—which to be fair was abundant on opening night—rarely followed sparkling dialogue and instead felt Pavlovian. I, too, chuckled (exactly once) at a lame reference to Thomas Piketty’s Capital. That giggle instantly felt empty, perfunctory.
The Panties, the Partner, and the Profit, a world premiere, is a family saga told in three parts and over nearly seven decades. Playwright David Ives has based this trilogy of short plays on a series of similar works by Carl Sternheim, a German expressionist who worked in the early 20th century. Its subtitle, Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Class, and narrative sweep also feel beholden to Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes).
The Panties section opens in Boston on July 4, 1950 and is set in what could be the Kramdens’ working-class apartment from The Honeymooners. Louise Mask (Kimberly Gilbert, the show’s bright spot) and her husband Joseph (Carson Elrod) have just returned from an Independence Day celebration during which her title undergarment unexpectedly dropped in public. This minor humiliation eventually reverberates across three generations of the Mask clan. Why? Don’t ask.
Elrod, Gilbert, and the rest of the cast appear throughout, taking on different roles as the show jumps forward in time. The Partner jumps ahead to a 1987 Manhattan office that mirrors Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. We finally land in contemporary Malibu in The Profit, at an oceanfront home reminiscent of Big Little Lies’ real-estate porn. A lot happens in this triptych: adultery, attempted murder, the apocalypse. Highfalutin speechifying—about capitalism, upward mobility, materialism and other fashionable topics—dominates the final act and suggests a deep thematic payoff, one that never comes.
Directed by Michael Kahn, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s stalwart maestro, The Panties, the Partner, and the Profit is visually handsome thanks to Alexander Dodge’s scenic design and Frank Labovitz’s costumes. But much like the gunshot in its second act, this show is a calamitous misfire.
The Panties, the Partner, and the Profit runs through January 6 at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Tickets $44-$118. Runtime approximately one hour and 50 minutes with no intermission.
