It’s not London, it’s not France, but everyone has just seen Louise’s underpants.

In the University Department of Theatre’s semester-opening production “The Underpants,” a pre-World War I German town has just been treated to a salacious, but purely accidental, slip of a young wife’s underwear at the King’s Parade.

“Don’t underestimate the power of a glimpse of lingerie!” harrumphs her embarrassed husband Teo, played by third-year graduate student Rob Glidden. The line comes early in the comedy, but it may as well have been the moral.

Unbeknownst to her rotund hubby, the demure and equally embarrassed Louise is then bombarded with two hopeful lovers, smitten at first glimpse.

“Gentlemen start showing up at the house wanting to rent [a] room when they really want to have an affair with the pretty, young wife whose underpants fell down,” said third-year graduate student Ruth Crews, who stars as the sexually-repressed Louise. “It’s a story of Louise coming into her own, becoming aware of her sexual identity.”

Egged on by a nosy, provocative neighbor named Gertrude (played by senior Stephanie Davis), Louise embarks on a comical attempt to have the affair of her dreams.

Originally written in 1910 by Carl Sternheim, the play figured as a political satire featuring no small amounts of spousal abuse and extra-marital copulation. Comedian Steve Martin later adapted it into a more light-hearted farce.

“Now [the play's] more based on, ‘everyone is really horny and we just want to get laid,’” Jake Young, a sophomore theater major playing Klinglehoff, said.

Under the direction of Associate Professor John Kundert-Gibbs, the production went with a more natural approach to focus attention on the over-the-top puns.

“There’s this sort of classic Steve Martin rhythm to it,” Kundert-Gibbs said. “I love the language in it, so I don’t want to make the characters too stock. I want them to be somewhat naturalistic so we can enjoy the language.”

Featuring a six-person cast composed of mostly graduate students, “The Underpants” is a polished, blithe beginning to the rather somber and heavy line-up fleshing out the rest of the season.

“As opposed to a lot of theater that gets done, you don’t have to think about this too much after you go home,” Kundert-Gibbs said. “It’s like drinking champagne or something.”