The Heidi Chronicles

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Some of it is warm and fuzzy. Some of it is stark poignancy cutting deep into Vietnam reminders, and other world skirmishes. Some of it is refreshingly humorous. Some of it carries the imagination back to play and compare simultaneously with references of where we were and what we were doing.

It may be helpful to have lived through the ’60s to appreciate Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play The Heidi Chronicles currently playing at Miners Alley Playhouse. If the ’60s are ancient history, Heidi’s story contains great relevance for a down to earth history lesson.

Witness who is performing this play. Director Robert Kramer leads the young actors with A Muse Of Fire to an amazing comprehensive of times that changed decade to decade with velocity in attitude.

The Heidi Chronicles is an astonishing piece of work by some very talented young actors, who have only heard about the ’60ss and the ’70s from history books, movies, family, and Gail Kramer who dug deep as Dramaturge into the depth of he Chronicles. The cast absorbed the history, then climbed into the decades with assurance, confidence, and character development to give a believable informed performance of where history counts most: in the gut.

Emma MacKay plays Heidi Holland with understated strength and power, allowing Heidi’s vulnerability to stand on its head without embarrassment, allowing Heidi’s strength to smile through the honest questioning.

With artwork around the stage by female artists, the play opens in New York in 1969 with Heidi lecturing on the contributions of women artists prior to the 20th Century. MacKay projects a Heidi who knows precisely what she is talking about, but she also projects a human being riddled with questions about her life, and her choices. Even though the play is only beginning, MacKay’s stance with Heidi lays the groundwork. You can see it in her eyes. Softy in the background, reflections of the past emerge upstage with a young Heidi and her mother played by Jamie Ford.

Setting the tone for the next scene, Heidi thoughtfully says, “and you sort of want to dance, and you sort of want to go home, and you sort of donŐt know what you want. So you hang around, a fading rose in an exquisitely detailed dress, waiting to see what might happen.”

The odyssey begins. The next scene goes back to 1965 Chicago to a high school dance. Heidi hangs out with her best friend Susan, deliciously played by Deidra O’Connor. Silly, giggly, hormones screaming “get the boys.” It is up for grabs as to who hangs around in whose shadow. Heidi meets Peter who after skillful word play asks Heidi if she will marry him. She tells him she covets her independence. He moves in for the kill, “if you can’t marry me, let’s be good friends.” Jacob Smith wears Peter’s skin well. A loose leafed thoughtful, playful character wearing his heart on his sleeve. Smith understands timing to get the smile and laugh from the understated lines. A character in motion, Smith commands attention.

In 1968 Eugene McCarthy ran for the democratic nomination. Heidi attends a dance as part of the celebration, and meets Scoop Rosenbaum. An arrogant journalist with charisma oozing from his pores, Scoop assigns a letter grade to everything. Jason Burnside nails Scoop to the wall giving him an A grade.

As the decades melt easily from one scene to the next, slides defining the decades flash almost too quickly forging memories of politics, war, dress, music, social punch lines characterizing the period of time.

Julie Sigala, Morgan Weave, Robin Litt, and Ford each play several characters, and each one slides easily from one defined character to another.

Kramer and Boni McIntyre carefully designed the costumes not only for the decades, but also for each character. The costumes fit the times, fit the character, and also fit the actor. They all look like they walked off the pages of our personal family photo album.

The only inkling of roughness in this production shows itself in the choreography designed by Stephanie Prugh. Carrying the play into another dimension, the choreography reflects the intensity of the characters and their relationship, but doesn’t always fit the ability of the dancers giving them a rough edge.

Warm, touching, poignant, deliberate, flamboyant, and very funny, Muse of Fire meets Wasserstein’s play head on laying it out on the boards with honest reality.

Muse of Fire was “originally established to bridge the gap between children’s and adult theatre in a professional environment.” It’s an opportunity to allow teens and young adults to try their wings, test the air currents to see if they want to fly and how far. A Muse of Fire has handed the keys of some of the best theatre schools in the country to several of the performers, including those in Heidi’s cast.

Spanning three tumultuous decades of social change, The Heidi Chronicles dives head first into the demanding issues with characters making choices, changing their minds, searching for their own meaning, grappling with their ever-changing friendships, searching for their own identity as issues creep up to slap them in the face. A Muse of Fire takes the plunge side by side with Wasserstein proving they have no hesitancy of the high dive. I will allow Scoop to rub off on me here. To miss this “A” performance would be a very big mistake. There will come a day when you will be able to say, “I knew them when.”