THIRD PERSON
Written by Catherine Filloux; Directed bt Elena Araoz
CultureHub | 47 Great Jones St., 3rd Fl, New York, NY 10012
September 20, 2025
It’s very rare that a reading of a play, let alone an epistolary play, has moved me to tears. I’m grateful to say that that’s the profound impact Catherine Filloux’s Third Person had on me over the weekend.
In a three-show day at CultureHub, The Directors Studio presented a new play about a 15-year old boy, Octavio, his mother and teacher, and another parent at his school who is also the CEO of a defense conglomerate. What began as what I thought would be a “typical” epistolary evolved into a heartbreaking story about love, tolerance, and the price we all play when we push our collective empathy to the side.
The question I left the theater asking myself was, What would I do if I was 15 years old today? How could I cope with the horror of existing in this world?
An impossible question, with an even more impossible answer. The mastery with which Filloux has structured these letters, emails and voice memos disarmed the audience and cracked us open within the short timeframe of an hour. The performances by all three actors were fantastic, offering a groundedness in an otherwise emotionally and artistically heightened piece. Their characters felt lived in, like real people who have written the words they were saying aloud themselves.
The pain of Octavio’s story is only made deeper when we come to terms with the fact that it is not unique. We live in particularly difficult times - watching murder broadcast on our screens, expected to continue on with our day as if we are not made aware of the vast injustices taking place over seas and right here at home. To expect anyone, let alone a child, to not only
understand such disparity, but accept it, is as absurd as the reality in which we live.
There was a deep level of care and love put into crafting this piece, and it comes through in each and every word that was read out loud. As things are not black and white, neither is this play. It exists in the nuance, and finds its way back to the love.
I sincerely hope this show is taken to other, more, bigger venues where Octavio’s story can be heard. It is a story that’s not just his, but all of ours.
Review by Niranjani Reddi.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on September 22, 2025. All rights reserved.