Wasserstein's 'Third' is First-Rate at Huntington Theatre
By: Nancy Grossman Jan. 15, 2008
Third
by Wendy Wasserstein
Directed by Richard Seer; Scenic Design, Ralph Funicello; Costume Design, Robert Morgan; Lighting Design, Matthew Richards; Sound Design, Bruce Ellman; Production Stage Manager, Stephen M. Kaus; Stage Manager, Eileen Ryan Kelly
Performances through February 3, 2008 at Huntington Theatre Company
Box Office 617-266-0800 or www.huntingtontheatre.org
"We see things as we are, not as they are." – Leo Rosten (20th Century Jewish Polish author/social scientist)
If there is a central theme to Wendy Wasserstein's final play Third, then it may best be encapsulated by the aforementioned quote. Consider that when she was writing it, the award-winning playwright was very ill with the lymphoma that ended her life in 2006; the action is set in the academic year 2002-2003 during the news cycle of the buildup to the war in Iraq; and the protagonist is a middle-aged, highly educated, articulate liberal feminist who finds herself struggling to remain tethered to her ideals in uncertain times.
There is nothing simple about this play, except to sit in the darkened theatre and allow the witty and intelligent dialogue to wrap its tentacles around you and draw you into the lives of these interesting people. But they are interesting because their individual quandaries and the difficult life choices they face are so familiar and we want to see how they will handle them, perhaps with the hope of finding some solutions that will work for us. It was Wasserstein's trademark to look in the cultural mirror and hold it up to show us our own reflection, yet not provide all the answers to the questions she raised.
Laurie Jameson is a renowned English professor, revered at the small New England college where she has taught and been a trailblazer for 25 years. Woodson Bull III is a conservative student wrestler in her Un-corseting Elizabethan Drama class that features the professor's interpretation of King Lear from a neo-feminist perspective. They clash when she stereotypes him from their first meeting and eventually misplaces a great deal of liberal aggression onto him that she is powerless to inflict on the appropriate targets. Bull finds that his usual upbeat, positive demeanor is somehow offensive to her and he must dig deep within himself to discover other resources. In addition to her conflict on campus, Laurie's home front presents her with three major challenges. Her Swarthmore College freshman daughter Emily is back for a visit, her elderly father Jack is on the decline, and her marriage seems stagnant and disappointing. At times like this, one turns to their girlfriends or their therapist or both. For Laurie, her best friend is more than a little preoccupied dealing with a recurrence of breast cancer and her therapist is a strict Freudian – no help there.
Interwoven with all of these issues is Shakespeare's King Lear, at the heart of which lies the bond between father and daughters. In her classroom, Professor Jameson disputes the common analysis that Cordelia is the heroine and Lear the tragic figure. When Third writes an impressive, scholarly psychosexual interpretation of the play, she is loath to accept it as his original work and the fireworks begin. Tangentially, she finds herself playing Cordelia to her father's ailing Lear, but awakens to the truth of their relationship in a poignant scene with Jack near the end of the second act.
While it appears that Third is the victim, he is the sadder, but wiser 20-year old man embarking on his life's journey, arguably better prepared for it because of his encounter with the legendary professor. Laurie Jameson is the tragic figure in this play. At the age of 54, she is shedding her well-honed persona, questioning her core values, and going off to find herself anew in California, the land of reinvention. She has lost her father, disconnected from her husband, and let go of her daughters. As she says to Bull, "My thinking has become as staid as the point of view I fought to overrule." Is Wasserstein saying that it is inevitable, the natural order of things, that we all become "the establishment" to the next generation? That may be the hardest pill to swallow for people who grew up in the Sixties and truly expected to both change and rule the world, and for feminists who have had difficulty creating a leadership model that differs from that of the entrenched male.
The Huntington Theatre Company presents the New England premiere of Third with an accomplished ensemble cast skillfully directed by Boston University graduate Richard Seer. Although it is ostensibly the story of a college professor who accuses one of her students of plagiarism, author and director highlight the importance of each character's arc as part of the whole, to bring out the nuance of each personality – sometimes revealed by just the slightest change in facial expression, employing pauses or silence to let tension build or allow something to sink in (for the character or the audience) or show the character's anger or frustration with a situation.
Maureen Anderman, a veteran of acting in Wasserstein plays, shows her experience with Wendy's words and rhythms, and gets inside her character to bring out Laurie's vulnerability. Graham Hamilton feels perfectly cast as Third, the "regular" guy who is incapable of seeing himself as others do, but who plumbs his own depth when put to the test. He exudes the necessary charm and self-confidence of the privileged white American male, yet can also believably don the mantle of cynic, and matches Anderman note for note in their scenes together.
Halley Feiffer makes Emily's struggle for separation and her emerging independence palpable while delivering one of the many important, heartfelt speeches in the play about her mother's agenda. As her grandfather, Jonathan McMurtry fights the good fight to bring into focus the kaleidoscopic images of a life that no longer makes sense to him. The role of Professor Nancy Gordon seems to represent the world view of Wasserstein as she faces a return of the illness she fought – and thought she defeated – years before. Robin Pearson Rose is impressive as she ranges from sardonic to dignified, from angry to accepting, from hopeful to joyful.
Ralph Funicello's scenic design is evocative of a traditional New England college and a decidedly upper middle class family's comfortable home, from the rich wooden paneling and high ceilings to the contemporary kitchen with its efficient central work island. Each set slides smoothly into place and stops on a dime. Matthew Richards adds appropriate lighting, including simulated lightning for a storm scene. Sound design by Bruce Ellman is well done, especially when weights hitting the floor with a thud (offstage) are perfectly synchronized with the televised announcement of the House of Representatives passing the President's resolution to use force in Iraq. As expected in a Wasserstein play, musical interludes are used effectively during scene changes. The actors are also aided in their portrayals by Robert Morgan's costumes that reinforce the image of each character. Emily and Third wear the jeans and t-shirts uniform of college kids, while Laurie dresses in the long, flowing skirts, muted colors, and funky jewelry of a grown up flower child; Nancy favors simple, neat tailored pants and blazers and a beret to hide her hair loss; Jack appears in pajamas and bathrobe or polyester pants and sweater vest befitting an old man.
In the end, Wendy Wasserstein does not answer all of our questions or tie up all of the loose ends, but that's life – and hers was much too short. Still, she seems to have left us at a crossroads and offered the choice of facing the rest of life with irony or with hope. To be on the safe side, she provided one final nudge. Listen to Third, as he tells Professor Jameson, "Just go with the hope. The other way will kill you." And I recommend that you go see Third.
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