Nicholas Barnard Women Playwrights: The Heidi Chronicles 3/31/02
1. I tend to believe that Heidi is a representation of the experiences of women of the baby-boomer generation. Most of what Heidi's struggles are fundamentally about is finding her own way and blazing a trail for the women who follow her. I think that her self-determination is a characterization that is fundamentally representative of the baby-boomer generation. I believe that her desire to have a child is a desire that is universal to all women.
2. I think Wasserstein's use of satirical comedy in this play to cause change by laughing at that that is wrong, I think what is wrong in a broad sense is the patriarchal dominance of society. That we are led to believe that everyone comes from the same basic belief system, and that fundamental belief is wrong, everyone emanates from belief systems that are essentially individual.
3. Both of Scoop and Peter are in the play juxtapose the struggles of a straight progressive, and a gay man during the turbulent times in which the story unfolds.
Peter exists within the play to emphasize the value of family, not in the biological meaning, but in the meaning embedded in William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland. Specifically that family is not bound by biological constructs but actually a collection of relationships of people who are devoted to each other despite that their varying approaches to life, their various professions, and varying physical desires, that they are committed to one and other on a long term basis, that does not wavier despite personal feelings. In addition at the art museum protest scene, Peter's character is used to link the commonality of the struggles of all minorities, especially the minorities that are created because of patriarchal nature of western society.
Scoop is more of a conundrum in explaining. But he tends to represent what Heidi can settle for: The casual fuck buddy, the husband who puts his life above his wife's life, and the idiosyncratic grading system along with poor construction. (pun intended) Scoop is the idealist who got scared and took the safe road, but finally inspired by Heidi, he decides at the end of the play to pursue his dreams, and run for an elected position.
4. The ending of the play baffled me for quite a while; it seems like a fundamentally unfeminist position, to tie oneself down to a child for the rest of one's life. But in thinking about Heidi's goals, and her pursuits, it becomes quite clear that a dream of hers is to have a child. I believe the message is, don't loose sight of your dreams, and if you cannot find a traditional way to achieve them, be creative, create another. But also part of this message is that women should feel free to dream without having to tie those dreams to the dreams and goals of men.