It's Thursday, and Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck kicks off the new year with her review of the world premiere of playwright David Ives' three-part comedy, ----The Panties, The Partner and The Profit,---- now on stage at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theater in Washington, D.C.In his fifth and final collaboration with the Shakespeare Theatre Company's retiring Artistic Director, Michael Kahn, Ives presents what he calls his ----translaptation---- of the late German playwright Carl Sternheim's epic trilogy, ----Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Class.---- In each of the three titular plays, Kahn and his cast, featuring Carson Elrod and Kimberly Gilbert, explore themes of sex, money and power, leaping from Boston in the 1950s to Wall Street in 1986 to modern-day Malibu.----The Panties, The Partner and The Profit---- continues at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC until Sunday, January 6.