'The Heidi Chronicles' Mirror the Past for Boomers

The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein

Directed by Eric C. Engel

Featuring Marianna Bassham, Anne Gottlieb, Julie Jirousek, Ben Lambert, Mason Sand, Chris Sena, Rebecca Sigl, Rachel Sullivan

Production Stage Manager, Jennifer A. Cleary

Set Design, Jenna McFarland

Costume Design, Miranda Kau

Lighting Design, Russ Swift

Sound Design, Jeremy Wilson

Performances now through July 2 at Gloucester Stage Company 

Box Office: 978-281-4433 or www.gloucesterstage.org

 With the death of Wendy Wasserstein earlier this year, one of the brightest stars in the constellation of American playwrights was extinguished prematurely.  During this month's Tony Awards show, a special tribute to her included a recitation by Cynthia Nixon who had been in the ensemble of the 1989 Broadway production of Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles.  The Gloucester Stage Company is honoring the late playwright with their presentation of this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play through July 2^nd.

 The Heidi Chronicles provides us with both a cultural history lesson and a look into the life of its author, as there are a number of similarities between Heidi and Wendy.  The prologue takes place in 1989, but Act I flashes back to a high school dance in 1965 where we meet Heidi (Rachel Sullivan), her best friend Susan (Marianna Bassham), and one of the two young men (Ben Lambert as Peter) who unknowingly sign on for the journey.  Wasserstein was born in 1950 and lived through the same social and societal upheavals as depicted on the stage.  Whereas she attended Mount Holyoke College, Heidi goes to Vassar, another of the so-called Seven Sisters colleges; Yale Drama School for Wendy, but the Art History Graduate Program at the New Haven locale for her alter ego.  When the play was first produced, Wasserstein was about the same age as her characters at the start and finish of the Chronicles.

 Watching this play was like taking a walk down Memory Lane for me (I, too, was born in 1950) as many scenes are introduced by a musical selection of the times and the costumes and hairstyles evoke the era.  Who would ever expect that a Pulitzer Prize-winning play would include The Shoop Shoop Song?  What fun! (And what fun to say Shoop Shoop!) I can't think of another song that better represents 1968 than Take a Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company.  It serves as accompaniment to Heidi meeting Scoop (Chris Sena), her other main man, at a Eugene McCarthy for President function.  The song title also foreshadows the relationship that will develop between these two.  Very clever, Wendy.

 As an Art Historian, Heidi describes herself as neither painter nor casual observer, "but a highly informed spectator," an apt characterization of her personal life, as well.  In the prologue of each of the two acts, 1989 Heidi presents slides of the works of little known women artists to a lecture hall of imaginary students.  Her description of the paintings as "uniquely female," not for their delicacy but for their detachment, seems like a metaphor for her own life.  She is so busy being an observer that she shies away from participation and involvement.  While it seems that the men in her life have trouble with commitment, Heidi seeks the Promised Land, but wanders through the desert without a map and often without a clue. 

 Fortunately, she has the love and support of her women friends, many of whom are also struggling to find their way.  Together they morph their 60's idealism into 70's feminism as they hopscotch from New Hampshire to Michigan to Chicago and New York.  They date, some marry, some have babies, and some have powerful careers, and they learn what we know now: it is nearly impossible to have it all.  However, this was one of the themes that Wasserstein was interested in exploring and it rears its head again in her later work The Sisters Rosensweig (1993).  The latter play is informed by a more mature, even cynical attitude, and its characters are more sharply drawn. One of the joys of The Heidi Chronicles is the freshness and excited feelings of starting out exhibited by the young people, full of expectation, hopes, and beliefs.  Although it seems a little dated at times, it is nice to revisit that era and those feelings.

 Act II takes us into the materialistic 1980's, beginning with John Lennon's death as one of the bookends of a series of events.  Heidi and friends have to examine their own lives and try to figure out whether or not they are grownups, what they have achieved, and, if they are not happy, where their happiness lies.  Scoop quotes the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "And I am awaiting the rebirth of wonder;"  Susan continuously reinvents herself and is practically a barometer of the times, they are a-changin'; Peter becomes the best pediatrician-under-forty and gets depressed in the face of the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; and Heidi realizes she has not been happy for a very long time.

 The scene in which Heidi has her awakening is Rachel Sullivan's finest moment.  Playing to a circle of empty chairs simulating an audience of alumnae of Miss Crain's School, she delivers a monologue that is one of the most powerful speeches in the play.  Heidi's topic is "Women, Where Are We Going," and she uses the occasion to rail against the failures of feminism.  Her talk meanders from a description of a typical day in the life of a multi-tasking superwoman to the actual day she just had before addressing the group.  As she regales them with the tale of her experience at the gym and the stereotypical women she encountered there, we can see the change in her temperament and feel the disappointment and betrayal she feels, that the promise of the Women's Movement did not come to fruition.  She tells the audience, "It's just that I feel stranded.  And I thought the whole point was that we wouldn't feel stranded.  I thought the point was that we were all in this together."  Sullivan was so strong in this scene that I could imagine myself as part of that alumnae group and that Heidi was talking to me.

 I wish that Heidi's persona shone through as clearly throughout the performance, but I didn't have a strong sense of who she was for much of the play.  She was defined by what everybody else said or believed about her and was handcuffed by her self-description as more observer than participant.  In addition, she was constantly bumping up against a couple of narcissistic men who were served by creating her in their own images.  Lambert and Sena each had sufficient charm in their portrayals, but neither conveyed the depth necessary for the hardships their characters faced.  I couldn't muster any sympathy for Scoop when he lamented the loss of Heidi's companionship even at his own wedding.  Nor did Peter's expression of sadness over so many AIDS-related deaths approach the gut-wrenching level which that might have warranted in the mid-80's when the disease was running rampant.

 The members of the ensemble who each played multiple parts added a great deal of flavor and texture.  Anne Gottlieb stood out in the consciousness-raising group as Fran, a strident Lesbian feminist in army fatigues, her energy and language giving real spark to that scene.  She was equally believable and funny as a send up of a femme fatale talk show host.  Jill Jirousek as Lisa was poignant as the wife who Scoop settled for in place of Heidi, especially when she feigned ignorance of his philandering even as she was feted at a baby shower.  Rebecca Sigl performed admirably as both the timid and confused teenager Becky and the go-getter Denise.  Mason Sand had tidbits of stage time in five lesser roles.

 As Heidi's best friend, Susan (Bassham) evolves the most, apparently by tasting and testing as many experiences as she can, in direct contrast to Heidi.  Her changes are notably abetted by clothing and hairstyles, but Bassham is as convincing as a sixteen year-old, rolling over the waistband of her skirt to enhance her Twist-ability, as she is as a thirty-something Hollywood power broker.  She is a steady constant in the cast as Susan is throughout Heidi's life.

 Director Engle and Set Designer McFarland make excellent use of two screens for projection of art and as room dividers, as well as finding countless uses for a handful of tables and chairs that are rearranged for each scene.  The musical interludes (written in by Wasserstein) connect one scene to the next and even make it fun to watch the actors move the furniture into place.  However, the pace drags in a couple of scenes, particularly when the characters are fixed in one spot or when someone is pontificating.  I find these characters very human and likeable, but there's no dearth of pontificating.  I think the author had a lot to say and said it well.  The challenge is to not get bogged down in the words, but to show the audience the depth of their relationships.

 When Wendy Wasserstein wrote The Heidi Chronicles, she created an ending that made sense for the character and for the times.  She could not have known how her own life would parallel the choice that Heidi made.  However, it tells me how deeply connected she was to her protagonist and how deeply felt this work must have been.  That's what makes for great drama and prize-winning plays.  The Gloucester Stage Company honors the late playwright and does alright by her baby.