By Neal Newman
August 28, 2022
The Langhorne Players in Tyler State Park are presenting an excellent production of THIRD by Wendy Wasserstein. This was her final play which premiered in 2005.
Seeing this was a “Circle of Life” experience for me because I reviewed the opening night of UNCOMMON WOMEN for Show Business (the weekly New York trade paper) in 1977. Everyone that night knew this was a major American playwright and a world-class play.
The story for THIRD began when Wasserstein visited a restaurant in New England and began talking to a waiter. He was a former Swarthmore student who had been accused of plagiarism and was generally disliked because he was an athlete. He was eventually acquitted of the charge but lost his scholarship and was forced to withdraw. This true story became the basis of the play.
The protagonist of any Wasserstein play must be a strong, feminist woman, and this time it’s Dr. Laurie Jameson (Susan Blair), who has been teaching her Shakespeare class in the same strident manner for decades. She believes KING LEAR is a typical male-centric classic about a cruel patriarch who is shocked when his feminist older daughters cross him. The simple loving youngest daughter is the typical passive “girl.”
There’s a lot of hate in this radical interpretation, one that doesn’t sit well with a student, Woodson Bull III (Thomas Wick), called Third. The professor instantly dislikes him. He comes from what is now called a red state. He only attends this elite New England college because his father and grandfather did. His primary interest is sports, and he appears to be a privileged moneyed Republican. And he calls himself THIRD! Dr. Laurie sees him as a “Walking Dead White Male.” When he submits a paper on LEAR that brilliantly disagrees with her perspectives, she accuses him of plagiarism, has him placed on probation, and demands a commission to investigate.
There are many internet search engine tools for professors to prove plagiarism, but Dr. Laurie is so convinced of his guilt that she refuses to use any of them. The student is acquitted of the charge but loses his scholarship because any student on academic probation cannot play sports.
As the play continues, the doctor gains a personal education in KING LEAR. Her first-year college student daughter, (Olivia Byrne), begins to challenge all her beliefs in heated arguments. The professor is then forced to comfort her senile father (Russ Walsh) in a driving thunderstorm. Does she learn from any of this? Not immediately.
Wasserstein seems to be challenging herself and the themes of her earlier plays by saying that being on the far left is as dangerous as being far right. Our country in 2005 was not as divided in the red/blue/civil war manner as it is today, but the author clearly illustrates the seeds of our current struggles.
THIRD is a powerful play. If it lacks the humor of other Wasserstein works and seems to be surpassed by similar works such as Edison’s WIT or Gilman’s SPINNING INTO BUTTER, it still makes for riveting theater. I found the ending unconvincing, but I urge you to make up your own mind on this.
The two leading performers are exceptional. Susan Blair could easily have played Dr. Jameson as a tough, hardened, fierce female, but Blair brings a natural softness and warmth that makes the character ALMOST likable. The author also throws in two long bravura speeches, one in a psychiatrist’s office and the other in a lecture. Both lead to intense breakdowns. Blair meets the challenge and effortlessly carries the play. Thomas Wick as Third certainly seems to be the overindulged character of Laurie’s accusation, but Wick’s natural honesty and intelligence win the audience over. The defense of his writing and his speech at the student union is particularly impressive. The supporting characters give remarkable performances when they challenge the professor’s beliefs. Special mention must be made of the character of Nancy, (Laurie Hardy, excellent), a best friend professor who is dying of cancer. This lends a touching elegiac feel to the evening when we realize that the playwright was facing death as she wrote and rehearsed the play.
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the direction of Erin Leder. The designers Erin Leder, Jack Bathke, Judi Parrish, and Mark Kolber have been forced to go for simplicity as the play consists of short scenes that would be more appropriate for a screenplay. Their work is effective, but the hypnotically lengthy set changes rob the production of the pacing the performance requires.
THIRD is highly recommended. The closing is September 17, with no performances on Labor Day weekend.
As an added extra, I include my 1977 Show Business review below.
Running time: Two hours, including intermission. Masks required.
