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| Kate Levy and Conor Hamill. Photo: |
Prejudices Get
Scrutinized Center Stage, and In Theater Seats
By Lauren Yarger
When’s the last time you admitted you could be wrong, or
that you might have misjudged someone simply because they hold an opinion
different from your own?
That’s the challenge presented by playwright Wendy
Wasserstein in her thought-provoking play Third,
kicking off the 30th anniversary season at TheaterWorks, Hartford.
The themes and issues brought into the light are just a relevant as they were
when the play first premiered in 2004 – perhaps even more so now as the nation
seems increasingly polarized by political and religious thought.
Kate Levy (who won last season’s CT Critics Circle
Outstanding Lead Actress Award for The
Other Place) returns here as Laurie Jamseon, a liberal, women’s rights
champion and pioneering professor at a small New England college. She dismisses
one of her students, Woodson Bull III, as a super-privileged white male, whose
political views get him labeled as a Republican, though he claims no official
ties with the party.
More interested in his wrestling schedule and the
sociological studies of athletes in pursuit of a sports-contract management
career, Bull doesn’t fit in with the serious academic student Jameson feels
should be admitted to the selective school, which not too long ago was only for
women.
The professor labels him as shallow and suggests that he
transfer to a different school. So when Bull turns in an insightful paper
discussing a new take on the anger of King Lear, she accuses him of plagiarism,
convinced he could never have come up with such a fresh and academic approach
on the subject. Bull claims reverse prejudice – athletes like him are only
admitted so they can be photographed for college propaganda to urge donors to
give the college money. They aren’t taken seriously as academics, he claims,
then goes on to defend his astonishing sociological study of Lear.
On the review board is Jameson’s best friend and co-women’s
libber Professor Nancy Gordon (a terrific Andrea
Gallo who gives a touching portrayal laced with humor), who is going through a
second round of breast cancer treatment. Fighting for her life has given her
some new perspective and Gordon challenges Jameson to rethink some of her
long-held opinions and to embrace life.
Jameson begins to examine her life and
discovers to her shock, that she might not always have been right about
everything. She seems to have taken some missteps in her marriage, which is not
as strong as she’d like to think, and daughter Emily (Olivia Hoffman) has no
trouble telling her mother where she’s gone wrong – especially with regards to
Third, the nickname by which Bull goes. She might even be able to repair her
relationship with Gordon who is enjoying the third portion of her life to the fullest.
As she cares for her father, Jack (Edmond
Genest) slipping ever more frequently into the memory loss of Alzheimer’s, Jameson
struggles to hang on to “know what she knows.”
It’s a thought-provoking piece that
challenges us to consider whether we are just as prejudiced and unwilling to
change as the people we accuse of the same offense. What are the consequences
of labeling people and dismissing them when don’t agree? If you’ve ever decided
that supporters of Donald Trump or listeners of Rush Limbaugh shouldn’t be
allowed to vote, perhaps you should head to the TheaterWorks Box Office….
Rob Ruggiero coaxes fully developed
performances and assembles an able creative team to help tell the story: Michael
Schweikhardt’s rotating set easily switches scenes and John Lasiter’s expert
lighting adds focus and mood. This is a
favorite work by Wasserstein: She makes her points by developing interesting
characters instead of creating stereotypes and gives them room to grow, which
they do here through the solid performances, especially by Levy and Gallo.
Third runs through Nov. 8 at TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays: 7:30 pm; Fridays and Saturdays: 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 2:30 pm. Wednesday Matinees Oct. 15 and 21 at 11 am. Tickets $15-$65; 860-527-7838; www.theaterworkshartford.org.
Additional offerings:
Talk Back Tuesdays
Free Student Matinee Oct. 17 at 2:30
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