The "F" Word

November 17, 2007

In the spring of 1992, we produced Wendy Wasserstein's wonderful play, The Heidi Chronicles. It dealt with so many themes of contemporary relevance, that we felt it would be a strong addition to our season. The only concern was that one scene, in particular, might be shocking to our audience. One of the characters was, essentially, defined by her use of the "f" word. We hadn't dealt with anything like that on our stage, and were concerned that the audience, specifically our season ticket holders might feel blindsided if we surprised them with this show.

Our solution was to send a letter to all subscribers telling them that we were doing a show that contained language that some might find offensive, and if they wanted to skip this show, we would give them credit for another one.

A relatively small number of season ticket holders opted out, but a larger number of non-season ticket holders, titillated by the news, which had leaked to the Register, bought tickets and made the show a success for us.

I remember, clearly, the call I received from a long-time subscriber, an elderly woman.

"Mr Viars, I read your letter, and I have a question. You say there is language that I might find offensive. What do they say?"

"Well, um... they say the "f" word... a lot."

"They don't do it, do they?"

"NO! Absolutely not."

"Well, as long as they don't do it, I guess I won't be offended."