The Heidi Chronicles

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THE NEXT STAGE

1620 Gough Street
San Francisco,CA,94109

Begins: 09/25/2009

Ends: 10/31/2009

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• Beans
  10/04/2009

  It's been 20 years since "The Heidi Chronicles" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which would hardly make it a Museum piece, and yet for some reason that is exactly how The Custom Made Theatre treats Wendy Wasserstien's discussion on the evolution and practical application of feminism in a changing world. Setting the play literally in a gallery show room that seems to be showing a retrospective of "feminist" art. Oddly enough, a piece of art is removed each scene. It is as if each scene an ideal, a confusion, a hope is taken away until Heidi is left with literally nothing but a baby in her lap and she is finally happy. Worse, it's almost as if one of the feminist ideals that Heidi (and generations of women) are building their lives on are taken down as each progressive me age moves forward until there are no foundations and Heidi's only path is to give in to social norms. Really, the gesture was unclear, which is a shame because it seemed to be the only gesture.
  
  While I was confused as to the real message behind the choosing, the placement, and the removal of the art I was happy to see it go. Most of them were distracting. There was no notes in the program about the art, which was disappointing considering Heidi is an Art Historian and Women in the Arts advocate in the play...one would think that the company would want to encourage those same attitudes in their audiences. I was left thinking the art on the wall was probably borrowed from some local artists or pulled together last minute by the set designer, but few pieces were by women artists or thought out enough to have anything but an accidental relationship to the play or the scenes.
  
  The actors in the play were watchable and, at times, engaging and charismatic. Dan Wilson's Scoop took a while to warm up, his mushy mouth tripped him up at the beginning of almost all of his scenes, but he was genuinely as lovable as he was an asshole and his scenes with Leah Abrams' Heidi were some of the best scenes in the play. While all the actors were capable, it seemed as if the directorial hand was so light as to leave the scenes flat and uneven. The fault of this play was always that most of the scenes look back on past events, characters are continually talking about what they did the year before or how they have been since we last saw them. But in a good production, those scenes are just part of the discussion. In a bad production, they come out as unmotivated and with out stakes.
  
  It is always good to see that a company finds a home and a theatre finds a company, and let's hope that Custom Made can make a good home out of Next Stage. Let's also hope that the rest of their season, full of amazing plays, don't feel as misdirected as The Heidi Chronicles.
  
  

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