The play posits that for gay men who want the support of their heterosexual female friends, fighting for women's rights is equally essential. While The Heidi Chronicles is not a play about LGBT rights, the relationship between Heidi and Peter is central - particularly in terms of how the friends support each other in their separate quests for agency and respect. As the play goes on, Peter advocates for his own rights and acceptance, and ultimately struggles to maintain his composure as AIDS takes a devastating toll on his community.
One of the most important men in Heidi's life is her best friend Peter Patrone (played by Bryce Pinkham in the revival), a gay pediatrician who comes out to Heidi in the first act. The play's concerns about female representation and society's skewed expectations for women are as pointed now as they were then, but there's something particularly pressing about the way The Heidi Chronicles addresses the fraught relationship between women's rights and queer rights. The iconic feminist text - currently on Broadway in a revival with Elisabeth Moss in the title role - chronicles Heidi Holland's life from 1965 to 1989 as a fervent activist for women and an accomplished art historian. It's been more than 25 years since Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize–winning drama The Heidi Chronicles premiered, and the fact that the play remains as relevant as ever is more than a little depressing.
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