Third in Need of a Second

Wendy Wasserstein's "Third," currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, gives much of what one would expect from Wasserstein: wit, interesting women with a focus on feminism, and much heart. Yet the second act lacks the rich dynamics and focus that is enjoyed in the first act, and the play peters to a stop without any punctuation.

Christine Lahti plays Laurie, an English professor much beloved at her (extremely) liberal arts university, balancing her classes, her menopausal symptoms, her friendships, and her family obligations with a rebellious daughter (Sarah Drew) and her father (M. Emmett Walsh), whose mental health is on a rapid decline. Matt Czuchry plays Third, the puzzle piece that simply won't fit into Laurie's long-standing view of the world, and Laurie's clumsy maneuvering causes the rest of the pieces to disassemble. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, President Bush is preparing to invade Iraq.

Lahti, a longtime Wasserstein veteran, fulfills the character with genuine humanity and love. The only fault may be in her blinding love of Wasserstein, she fails to overcome the flaws in the play that doesn't allow her character to be truly multi-dimensional. The second act only lets us experience the deconstruction of Laurie, leaving Lahti and the audience to merely wonder about the reconstruction. (Maybe a third act was in order?)

Walsh is simply heartbreaking as the father who has deteriorated to that of a helpless infant, and the play soars to its peak in his last beautiful scene with Lahti. Drew gives us as much as she can with a one-dimensional antagonist character. Czuchry brought energy, and some much-needed semblance of a person in harmony within themselves to his Third, but, as Lahti did, suffered the faults of a character with not quite enough fine lines drawn to enhance Third into a full-fledged person.