The Arena Stage's latest production, "The Heidi Chronicles," is one of the most well-known and highly praised feminist works of the past twenty years. Written by renowned playwright Wendy Wasserstein, the play follows the life of Heidi Holland on the long road of maturity and self-recognition she walks along.
After Wasserstein's unfortunate and early death in January 2006, her plays were revived throughout the country. "The Heidi Chronicles" won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It is by far Wasserstein's most famous work and has been loved by both men and women for almost twenty years.
This production of the show absolutely lives up to any New York version. The entire cast delivered an amazing performance that made the audience identify and empathize with Heidi and everything she goes through.
The most striking aspects of the play by far were the costumes and scenery. In the first scene, Heidi and her best friend Susan are at a high school dance in 1964. Both are wearing pastel taffeta dresses, sitting in neon plastic chairs, drinking from a punch bowl and bopping their heads to "The Twist" in a totally believable scene.
As they grow up, the progression of time is very well illustrated through the costumes and set. When Heidi and Susan canvas for political parties in 1968, they wear geometric sheath dresses and their boyfriends sport suede fringe coats. The scenes that follow depict Heidi protesting for her favorite cause, women in the arts, show her wielding picket signs and megaphones. The two attend feminist group meetings and weddings in the 1970s, contrasting the casual and formal styles worn by the women of the time. In the last few scenes of the play, Heidi and her friends live in bare New York apartments in the late '80s and wear their power suits proudly, shoulder pads and all.
Another important aspect of the production was a slide show between scenes that depicted political figures, celebrities and trends of the time, accompanied with the sounds of the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and Aretha Franklin. The creative progression from era to era was one of the most remarkable features of the play.
Throughout the show, Heidi appears to be just like her friends and fellow activists in dress and appearance, but her thoughts and behaviors are quite different. From the very beginning of the show, Heidi questions why Susan is so boy crazy, and finds it ridiculous how she rolls up her skirt before going out on the dance floor.
As the feminist movement becomes more popular, Heidi is hesitant to identify herself with this group. She calls herself a humanist and often says that "all people deserve to fulfill their potential." Though after studying in Europe, writing a book and facing one relationship problem after another, Heidi becomes familiar with the ideas of the feminist movement and longs for the day when her passion of women in the arts will become more recognized.
In one of the final scenes of the play, Heidi gives a speech on the topic "Women: Where are we going?" After watching her once fellow activists begin new lives as wealthy, successful, urbanites, Heidi longs for the sense of camaraderie they once shared and emphasizes the isolation she experiences.
Heidi feels stranded as she still "fights the good fight" and watches those who once supported her move on to suburbia and corporate glory. This culmination stresses how hard Heidi's road to maturation was and how difficult finding oneself can be. In the end, Heidi realizes that her work really is worthwhile, and lives her life with her closest friend and daughter happily teaching art history and engaging in the joys of life she loves.
