LSU's Swine Palace Presents the Heidi Chronicles

In 1989, The Heidi Chronicles achieved a trifecta in the world of American dramatic arts by winning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, written by Wendy Wasserstein, opened off-Broadway in 1988, produced by Playwrights Horizons, but quickly moved to Broadway in March of 1989. Like most of Wasserstein's work, The Heidi Chronicles is a play that challenges traditional women's roles in American society; specifically the play takes us from the 1960s, when the title character is in high school, through to the late 1980s, when Heidi has achieved undeniable professional success as an art historian.

Since Wasserstein's untimely death in January of last year, her work has enjoyed a bit of a revival around the nation and in Louisiana. Just last summer the Baton Rouge Little Theater staged another one of her plays, The Sisters Rosenweig. Other plays by Wasserstein include Isn't it Romantic, An American Daughter, Old Money, and Third. Her film credits include the screenplay for the 1998 film starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, The Object of my Affection. The majority of Wasserstein's oeuvre features intelligent, professional young women struggling to reconcile their own wants with those prescribed by a still-patriarchal society. The Heidi Chronicles, arguably Wasserstein's best-known play, tackles this struggle in spades.

Director Michael Tick chose wisely in his casting choice for the title role of Heidi Holland. First year M.F.A candidate in the LSU Professional Actor Training Program, Leigh-Erin Balmer performed this complicated character with ease and the character is complicated. Heidi Holland, like most human beings, is not easily categorized. She is neither an ardent feminist nor a total victim of the patriarchal establishment. She is realistically caught between these two spaces. She is intellectually motivated and driven by her professional aspirations. She also yearns for deep human relationships. Heidi often vacillates between complete confidence and utter bafflement within a single scene and Balmer hits these notes with extreme precision. The audience never doubts Heidi's poise when she is confident or her instability when she is nervous. This vacillation is perhaps best displayed by Balmer in a late scene, during which Heidi Holland is presenting a speech to her alma mater about the future of women. A delicate blend of anger, desperation, hope, love, and confusion color Heidi's unscripted presentation as she describes a recent moment in time in which she occupied a locker room with a number of women, all of whom she felt envious of and superior to. Our hearts collectively break as we understand why she is simply "too sad to exercise."

Another stellar performance is provided by Yohance Myles, also a first year M.F.A candidate in the LSU Professional Actor Training Program, who portrayed Peter Patrone, Heidi's best friend. Myles dominates the stage during every scene in which he appears. With impeccable comedic timing and enormous emotional depth, we are devestated along with Heidi when we learn that he is not in fact harboring romantic desires for her. We cheer Peter's unapologetic friendship and devotion to Heidi as he challenges her commitment to the philandering, ego-centric Scoop. We see through the façade of bravado during his appearance on Hello New York. And most emphatically, we are choked up during his desperate plea to Heidi, toward the end of the play, that his friends stop leaving him.

The supporting cast, serving in multiple roles, rounded out this strong production of Wasserstein's play. Particularly impressive was Amber Harris, who showed amazing range as Fran, the gregarious, caustic, lesbian, feminist in the 1970s and April, the bubbly, overpaid, slightly clueless, morning talk show host in the 1980s.