by doing so, she has come to feel isolated and alone.
She admonishes the crowd by telling them that she
feels stranded, when she thought the whole point
was that women wouldn’t feel stranded; rather, they
would support one another and feel closer as a gen-
der. The 1980’s may have brought liberation, but
that liberation did not bring contentment.
While many praised Wasserstein’s play for its un-
flinching examination of mainstream American
feminism and Heidi’s struggle to define herself, oth-
ers felt her attack on the women’s movement and
joke-ridden dialogue betrayed the importance of
women moving forward as both mothers and work-
ers. Others felt that by creating a character that is
lost and often voiceless, Wasserstein put too much
credence in the points of view expressed by Scoop
and Peter, two men. Wasserstein herself countered
that Heidi, and indeed most women in the 1980’s,
were lost and voiceless and that the definition of
“success” was not the same for women as it was for
men. Whatever disagreements the play presented
among critics, audiences were very receptive to a
contemporary feminist play and agreed that Was-
serstein’s Heidi was a fitting representation of baby-
boom women and their fears that success in the
workplace would not be enough for a happy life.
Impact Wasserstein’s play opened starring Joan Al-
len, Boyd Gaines, and Peter Friedman and won the
Pulitzer Prize for drama, the Tony Award, the Drama
Critics Circle Award, and scores of other honors. It
was eventually made into a television movie starring
Jaime Lee Curtis, Tom Hulce, and Peter Friedman
that was seen by—and influenced—a much wider
audience.
Further Reading
Austin, Gayle. “The Heidi Chronicles(Review).”Thea-
tre Journal, March, 1990, 107-108.
Balakian, Jan. “The Heidi Chronicles:The Big Chillof
Feminism.”South Atlantic Review60, no. 2 (May,
1995): 93-101.
Ciociola, Gail.Wendy Wasserstein: Dramatizing Women,
Their Choices, and Their Boundaries. Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland, 1998.
Brokaw, Tom
See also Big Chill, The; Feminism; Theater; Women
in the workforce; Women’s rights.
Henley, Beth
Identification American playwright
Born May 8, 1952; Jackson, Mississippi
After receiving the Pulitzer Prize forCrimes of the Heart,
her first professionally produced play, Beth Henley emerged
in the early 1980’s as a significant new playwright whose
work enlarged upon the contributions of earlier writers from
the American South. In addition to their treatment of tradi-
tional Southern Gothic themes, her plays have been noted
for presenting resilient women characters.
Crimes of the Heart(pr. 1979, pb. 1982), which opened
Off-Broadway in 1980, met with both critical and
popular success. Set in a small southern town, it de-
picts three adult sisters who struggle against social
repression in the form of gossipy relatives and neigh-
bors, violent chauvinists, and racists—all of whom
became familiar elements in Henley’s successive
plays. WithCrimes of the Heart, Henley became the
first woman in twenty-two years to win the Pulitzer
Prize; the play also earned the New York DramaThe Eighties in America Henley, Beth 459
Beth Henley.(AP/Wide World Photos)