Strong supporting cast carries enjoyable `Heidi Chronicles’

In the beginning of “The Heidi Chronicles,” Wendy Wasserstein’s Tony Award-winning play now showing at the Penobscot Theatre, art historian Heidi Holland delivers a lecture about the underrepresentation of great female artists in textbooks, art classes, and museums. It’s tempting to think that Wasserstein’s play follows suit, and despite its overtly feminist themes, also underrepresents great women in art — this time in the dramatic realm.

That’s not to say that “Heidi Chronicles” is without value. As it traces Heidi’s life from her teens in the 1960s, through the political rallies of the 1970s, and the power careers of the 1980s, we get a thorough women’s history retrospective, always enjoyably packaged in Wasserstein’s brand of cynicism and humor.

What we don’t get, however, is a leading woman worth admiring. At best, Heidi is an endearingly gawky and surprisingly victimized waif for whom we feel quite sorry. She reads books at school dances, has bad taste in men, gets pushed around by members of both sexes, and identifies with the Heffalump, a character from “Winnie the Pooh.” She’s not exactly a Joan of Arc for the ’90s, or in any way mirthful about her self discovery.

And Heidi simply isn’t the heroine that her friends think she is. Her sometimes-lover Scoop, who is essentially a womanizing, self-serving gadfly masked as a progressive, intellectual yuppie, continually rates her as an “A plus,” but there isn’t any believable reason why this Vassar girl should get anything other than an average grade.

In the title role, actress Odelle Bowman doesn’t win any gold stars either. She performs competently and crafts a consistent character, but lacks the defiance, boldness, and confidence that an actress might have breathed into Heidi to make her engaging and charismatic. We feel plenty of sympathy for Heidi, but not much inspiration about her life. Bowman shows us she can act; she just doesn’t give us a character we can love.

Yet the Penobscot production, directed by Joe Turner Cantu, manages to hold our attention largely because of the supporting actors, who cleverly create some colorful and appreciated characterizations. In particular, as Heidi’s closest friend Peter, Christopher J. Guilmet, swiftly moves between the droll and the dramatic. His subtle approach to character development goes a long way in making his delightful performance the shining star in this show.

Likewise, Nell Wade, playing four roles, brings a lot of energy to the stage. She shows her knack for the cartoonish, particularly in the role of a tighly-wound game-show host, and her charm as a comedian, in nearly every moment she is on stage.

David Gutmann, as Scoop, is sedate and slimy, an effectively disturbing combination of qualities for this cunning character. Nancy Forster, who plays Heidi’s girlfriend Susan, is delightfully at ease and adept with her performance, which makes her contribution to the ensemble scenes all the more valuable. Karen Colburn, Harold Hynick and Kat Minkevich, in a variety of roles, continually add spice to the show.

“The Heidi Chronicles” will be performed 8 p.m. Nov. 1, 7, 9, 15, 17, 20, 21 (signed) and 23, and 2 p.m. Nov. 3 and 17 at the Penobscot Theatre in Bangor. For more information, call 942-3333.