Everything old is new again in “The Unexpected 3rd”

A new production has taken the stage at New Brunswick’s George Street Playhouse, displaying the wisdom that comes with longevity. It is The Unexpected 3rd, written by and starring a national treasure, actress-activist Kathryn Grody.

The show’s title refers to the third act of the play of living. The first act is childhood and youth, a time of imagination and questioning, an intense learning experience that molds and shapes one for the rest of life. The second act is adulthood, the time of productivity and responsibility, of earning a living and creating a family. But the third act is the one for which no one prepares you.

It seems enormously frustrating: here you are, with a lifetime’s worth of hard-won knowledge and experience, yet it’s devalued because of your age, or physical challenges, or because you’re a woman. Grody’s advice: stay active physically and intellectually; regain your curiosity about life; and dare to do those things that you put off during your first two acts. 

Grody, as directed by Timothy Near, faces her unexpected third act with humor and determination. The set designed by Nina Ball reflects the lovely, sometimes messy clutter of thoughts and memories and emotions that is the human mind, with the large barren tree from Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, decorated with one of Dali’s melting clocks, at one end. Grody pulls pages from her script out of odd locations, leading the audience through the branching workings of her mind. She teaches us the power of her favorite word, one she invented: respair, which is the opposite of despair and a recovery from hopelessness. 

Playwright Grody has written the workings of her mind into a funny, touching one-act play. Actress Grody pours all her skills from eight decades of living into presenting her wisdom, her observations into her audience. As I said before, Kathryn Grody is simply a national treasure, and I strongly recommend you journey with her into The Unexpected 3rd!

The Unexpected 3rd is presented by George Street Playhouse in the Arthur Laurents Theatre at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through November 1. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to georgestreetplayhouse.org.