An American Daughter

When Lyssa Dent Hughes, a widely respected physician, is nominated for United States Surgeon General, it looks as if she is a shoo-in to be confirmed. Fifth generation granddaughter of Ulysses S. Grant, daughter of a conservative Indiana senator, wife of a respected Georgetown professor, and tireless pioneer for women's health issues, Lyssa is looking forward to her opportunity to make a difference on a larger scale. During a casual conversation in the presence of a reporter, however, a "friend" remarks that she once failed to appear for jury duty. The press pounces on this "Jurygate" mistake, which quickly becomes worse when she indicates that she does not make "icebox cake" and "pimiento-cheese canapés" like her late mother and the other women from Indiana, galvanizing them to oppose her "elitism." The press camps out at her Georgetown home, and before long, her young son is yelling from the TV room, "Mom, they think that you're the problem with America." But Lyssa refuses to "be hung out to dry, even if I have to wear headbands, bake cookies, and sing lullabies to do it." In an interview with Timber Tucker, which becomes the climax of the play, she aggressively tackles the health and social issues which mean so much to her, and angrily faces down the press and the public's perceptions, for better or worse. Written in 1999, this play tackles women's social issues in a man's world, serious women's health issues, political expediencies, and press intrusions into private areas, and every female reader or viewer will understand and empathize with the characters as they face their demons here. In the ten years since this play was written, however, the country has made great strides, and the issues Lyssa discusses have been analyzed and tackled with far greater energy than ever before, to the point that Lyssa's impassioned speech seems a bit dated. Hilary Clinton's "baking cookies" remarks and Lyssa's parallel icebox cake and pimiento-cheese references feel tired and "stale" now. The facts and figures she cites regarding research funds for breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer, as opposed to the far greater funding for prostate cancer, are being actively addressed, and points made about the holding of women to different standards now feel like a cliché. As a relic of the 1990s, this play is important and, perhaps, even ground-breaking, but its punch has been blunted over the past ten years by the progress women have made since it premiered. The fact that it still resonates with viewers, however, shows that significant issues still remain. n Mary Whipple The Sisters Rosensweig The Heidi Chronicles. Bachelor Girls Old Money Charlie Rose with Wendy Wasserstein, John Guare & David Henry Hwang; Caio Fonseca, Edmund White & Isabel Fonseca; Morris Lapidus (November 23, 2000)

Of the Wasserstein I've read, Heidi and Rosensweig, this one read the smoothest. It was an engrossing story, certainly recognizable in this day in age, peppered with characters that I've seen time and again on cable news, and pivots on that seemingly minor transgression everyone famous and political seems(has) to have made. What stands out about An American Daughter is the weakness in the media system to award courage and conviction in action. Even in spite of mistakes, which are surely universal. That I suppose was behind Wasserstein's m.o., that tangling with the gossips and character assassins and the news engine is more gristle for them, death for you. That is a statement painfully necessary more and more, as the hypocrisy of the day is not slips of paper and frustrating civil service, but war and death and political capital.

Amazingly relevant to present days. Beautifully acted and written.