The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: The Birdcage

written by Elaine May


The Birdcage, which is roughly based on a French movie, is a delightful, very American comedy about mismatched inlaws when the son of a homosexual couple announces his marriage to the daughter of a very conservative senator. Underlying this is a warm, human story of the homosexual couple's relationship.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1 min.)
    • "Where is Starina?" The star of a drag show, who is the life partner of the club owner (Armand), has a temper tantrum and refuses to perform. Albert, or Starina, feels abandoned. Will the show be able to go on or not?
  2. Complication (6-7 min.)
    • Albert wants more security from Armand - a palimony agreement.
  3. Call to Action (16 min.)
    • Although Albert suspects Armand is seeing someone else, the surprise guest that night is Armand's son, Val. Val announces his upcoming marriage and wants his father's blessing. Armand reluctantly gives it (he's so young). He'll cooperate with the wedding plans (not really knowing the details yet).
  4. Act One Plot Point (33-5 min.)
    • The conservative family is coming to visit the parents of the groom. Val insists that Armand provide a charade, pretending to be straight, and that the more effeminate Albert be absent during the visit. Again reluctantly, Armand gives in.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (55-7 min., 67 min.)
    • Armand will ask Val's mother to "stand in" as his "wife" during this charade. Val has never met his real mother. Albert, of course, is very upset at being banned from the occasion - but Armand gives him the palimony agreement he wants (67 min.).
  6. Act Two Plot Point (102 min.)
    • Val's real mother gets held up in traffic, so Albert appears in drag to play the mother (84 min.). In moments of wonderful comic irony, the gay-bashing conservative senator takes to "her" immediately. But when the real mother finally shows up, the truth comes out; "these are my parents," says Val, pointing out Armand and Albert (102 min.) The two sets of parents - one gay, one ultra-conservative - are about as incompatible as inlaws can be.
  7. Climax and Resolution (109-113 min.)
    • The media on the tail of the senator prevent them from leaving after the discovery above, however. To escape, the conservative senator goes in drag. His reputation is intact, and the wedding goes on as planned.

    Notes

    The Birdcage succeeds in exaggerating cultural realities to humorous effect. Many comic twists fill the story: the death of the senator's colleague and co-founder of the Coalition for Moral Order in the bed of an underage, black prostitute (25 min.); the media circus that follows the senator as a result (27 min. on), trailing him and his family all the way to the visit of Armand and Albert; Albert's flighty and emotional personality, over-reacting to any imagined transgression by Armand; the immediate warmth between the conservative senator and the drag mother Albert; the senator's wrong interpretation of everything to fit his exaggerated and bigotted view of the world.

    This script also is a good one to study for efficient scene design. Transitions can be immediate and visual: when Armand, trying to teach Albert to be manly, challenges a hunk and gets clobbered, the cut is from the challenge directly to Armand with an ice pack, without a single punch shown to the audience (54 min.). The fight itself is irrelevant to the comedy. And again, when Albert storms off in the car after misinterpreting romance between Armand and Val's mother, the cut is directly to Armand arriving home after taking the bus (62 min.), the time in between being irrelevant to the movement of the story. Beginning writers seldom make scene transitions with such efficiency.


    MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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