Content warning: This article mentions violence, suicide, and murder.
From February 6–8, at Hart House Theatre, the Trinity College Dramatic Society (TCDS) presented Heathers: The Musical — based on the cult classic film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater.
As the lights dimmed, a crew member came onstage to present a list of trigger warnings attached to the performance, which was so extensive that the audience at my February 8 matinee couldn’t help but laugh. This opening set the tone for the show: Heathers is a black comedy — it’s all about coming together as a community and laughing in the face of tragedy because sometimes that’s the only way to get through it.
To make her high school experience more livable, Veronica (Isobel Arseneau), a quiet, nerdy student at Westerberg High, tries to get in with the most powerful girls in school — the Heathers. As Veronica begins her initiation into the clique, we quickly find out that survival really is what’s at stake: Heather Chandler (Jaidyn McFadden), Heather Duke (Hannah Evans), and Heather McNamara (Emma Simpson), much like the Powerpuff Girls, have cute little colour-coded uniforms.
But don’t let their looks deceive you — the Heathers are evil to their very core. Chandler, the group leader, enlists Veronica — and her talent for forgery — to provide behind-the-scenes help in terrorizing unpopular students.
Veronica also begins spending time with J.D. (Nomi Parsai), the philosophy-quoting, trench-coat-wearing loner love interest, whose big plans to make the world a better place involve killing high school bullies and staging their deaths as suicides. J.D. quickly implicates Veronica in his evil schemes as well, having her forge suicide notes to cover up his crimes. Veronica finds herself torn between the social safety the Heathers provide and her growing feelings for J.D.
The movie Heathers has a cult following, and the musical was also extremely successful off-Broadway, so it’s hard not to go into it with high expectations.
I truly enjoyed the TCDS production, mainly because of the standout performances and powerhouse vocals from McFadden — who commanded the stage as Chandler — and Arseneau — who won audiences over with her awkward and endearing portrayal of Veronica. Parsai’s performance as J.D. brought back deeply repressed memories of my PHL100 tutorials, and Kurt (James Goldman) and Ram (Diego Martin Boetti) — the duo of dumb jocks who terrorize Veronica — were hilariously punchable. You love to see them coming, if only to revel in their downfall.
My favourite moment came early in the second act during the song “My Dead Gay Son,” a campy gospel number where Kurt and Ram’s homophobic fathers share a passionate kiss in the middle of their sons’ joint funeral — because nothing brings people together better than tragedy.
The way we deal with tragedy is an ongoing theme in Heathers. Chandler is J.D.’s first target. After her death, copies of Veronica’s forged suicide note circulated throughout the school. The note proclaimed, “No one sees the me inside of me,” revealing that behind Chandler’s “mythic bitch” facade was a kindhearted and misunderstood little girl.
After reading the note, students and teachers romanticize her suicide, turning her into a martyr who died to bring the students of Westerberg High together. They fall into typical post-tragedy platitudes, like “Heather’s gone but she will live forever.”
As the narrative develops, Chandler’s image becomes more distorted: she is described as “the dove that sings outside my window,” “the twin from whom I’m separated,” and even “the horse I never got for Christmas.” These examples become increasingly absurd and far removed from the reality of Chandler, who, by all accounts, was a terrible person.
This is the space Heathers occupies: it walks the line between criticizing the absurdity of tragedy narratives without falling into the same violent patterns of representation it seeks to critique. This delicate balance can only be achieved with a deft handling of the heavy subject matter.
In an interview with The Varsity, Assistant Director Jake Zanth discussed his and Director Madeleine King’s approach to the show: “[Me and Madeleine have] always wanted to do Heathers, but there’s never been a good time. There’s never going to be a good time to do Heathers, because it’s intense. It’s difficult on the cast, specifically, and it’s difficult to sit through if it’s not done in a way that respects the content, [the performers, and the audience.]”
The directorial team aspired to “make [the show] work in a way that was safe for everyone involved” through careful modifications to the source material, striking a balance between maintaining the tone and humour of the show while prioritizing the well-being of cast members and audiences.
Heathers: The Musical is a show about teenagers being horrible and the adults around them being somehow even worse. Jessica Wang gave us an utterly nauseating Ms. Fleming, the washed-up hippie school counsellor dripping with big feelings and post-tragedy bonding activities.
Ms. Fleming provides a shining example of what ‘not’ to do when faced with tragedy in her upbeat number “Shine a Light” — part of her suicide prevention strategy, which asks students to “shine, shine, shine a light / on your deepest fear,” in front of the entire student body and a camera crew.
Heathers is a story about surviving high school. It’s about differentiating yourself from the two other girls in your grade named Heather. It’s also about tragedy and the violence of the stories we tell. Most importantly, though, Heathers is a story about community. Each character, in their own messed-up way, is fighting to be seen — whether to fit in, find love, be understood, or leave their mark on the world. Community building was also a big focus during the rehearsal process.
Choreographer Lindsay Costa — who had previously worked with many of the cast and crew members of Heathers in the Victoria College Dramatic Society’s production of Young Frankenstein — said in an interview with The Varsity: “I think that’s why so many of our cast members have come with us from show to show, because they know that we really care about them and that we’re trying to take care of them.”
Costa also explained that the cast worked with professional intimacy coordinators to ensure the intimate scenes were comfortable for everyone involved and mentioned that the crew made a point of checking in with actors after heavy scenes.
The directors’ commitment to the cast and crew’s well-being paid off. Through their performance, the cast brought me into the world of these characters and their interpersonal problems — ranging from the trivial to the potentially world-ending — in a way that would not have been nearly as impactful without their palpable chemistry.
The TCDS production of Heathers was both intense and hilarious, a testament to the power of mutual care and functional communities.
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