Crimes of the Heart
By Beth Henley
The Callan Theatre
September 28 at 7:30 p.m.
September 29 at 7:30 p.m.
September 30 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
October 1 at 2 p.m.
The three Magrath sisters have gathered in Hazlehurst, Mississippi and await the news of their dying grandfather. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future—but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.
