Is the shape of our lives determined by heredity or culture? In 1925 American anthropologist Margaret Mead visited Samoa on a research trip and thought that she had discovered a utopian society, free of the restrictive social conventions of western societies. Her revelations of promiscuity among Samoan teenagers made her the guru of generations of academics and the 1960s' aficionados of sex, rock 'n' roll, and free speech. In 1983 Australian academic Derek Freeman exposed Mead's findings as fraudulent, and revealed the story of how, and why, the Samoans had duped her. Heretic, David Williamson's controversial play, explores the lifetime obsessions of two remarkable, headstrong protagonists. It also takes us inside the psyche of Derek Freeman, an iconoclast who was prepared to risk his marriage and shatter his career in the pursuit of truth.
