The Third Story
by Charles Busch

Name: The Third Story
Brand: Charles Busch
SKU: 9780573697302
Rating: 3.43 (7 reviews)

The Third Story Book Cover — The Third Story Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

120 mins 1950s Ensemble Cast Unit Set/Multiple Settings Fantasy Costumes American Comedy

Synopsis

Comedy / Characters: 4m, 2f / Unit set A faded screenwriter in the 1940's woos her troubled ex-writer son into collaborating on a screen play.

The gangster/sci fi B-movie in their imagination unfolds before us, involving a chic crime czarina, a beautiful but icy lady scientist and her failed and understandly bitter human cloning experiment.

A third story is the Russian fairy tale the screenwriter told her son as a child about a painfully shy princess who forges a diabolical pact with a terrifying but surprisingly vulnerable old witch.

The fairy tale inspires the movie which inspires the mother and son screenwriters to mend their fractured relationship.

"Plays-within-plays require such intricate tailoring.

So it's a pleasure to report that with The Third Story, the ever-captivating Charles Busch proves equally deft as both performer and seamstress."

-Theatermania.

"The main joy of The Third Story is that its foolery embodies something substantive...No wonder The Third Story feels like such an energizing event."

-Village Voice.

Themes Screenwriters

Press Reviews

"Mr. Busch and company explore and explode all sorts of vintage cinema clichés, an activity at which Mr. Busch is without peer"
— The New York Times

"Ingenious! Laugh-packed! The Third Story proves a treat and throbs with heart as well!"
— Hartford Courant

"Plays-within-plays require such intricate tailoring. So it's a pleasure to report that with The Third Story, the ever-captivating Charles Busch proves equally deft as both performer and seamstress."
— TheaterMania

"Charles Busch says more with a curled lip than many plays say in a whole evening of talk."
— Newsday

"The main joy of The Third Story is that its foolery embodies something substantive [...] No wonder The Third Story feels like such an energizing event."
— The Village Voice

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
VASALISA / VERNA Actor Two -	—	—	Actor Two -
BABA YAGA / QUEENIE BARTLETT / QUEENIE 2 Actor Three -	—	—	Actor Three -
PEG / DR. RUTENSPITZ Actor Four -	male	—	Actor Four -
DREW / STEVE Actor Five -	—	—	Actor Five -
DR. CONSTANCE HUDSON Actor Six -	male	—	Actor Six -
ZYGOTE / BABA YAGA DOUBLE	—	—	—