HART Explores Crimes of the Heart

Photo by Bob Morrison: Kelsey Ion, Yelena King, and
Leslie Inmon

 

 By Tina Arth

If there is one overarching theme that defines theatrical depictions of the American South, it is that family trumps all.  Playwright Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize winning Crimes of the Heart clearly adheres to this principle in its curious mixture of comedy and tragedy, of startling transgressions and stereotypical Southern schlock. Director Stan Yeend has assembled an appropriately quirky group of actors to bring this unusual blend to Hillsboro’s HART Theatre’s production of a classic play.

 

Crimes of the Heart introduces the Magrath sisters (Lennie, Meg, and Babe), the most recent generation of a hopelessly dysfunctional family in Hazlewood, Mississippi. Henley tackles it all – racism, spousal and child abuse, suicide, infidelity, mental illness, and more as her script takes the audience back and forth from laughter to tears through three acts of emotional peaks and valleys that end with the ubiquitous sisterly hug – more catharsis than resolution.

 

The story is centered on a very, very bad day and a single (literal) crime –Babe, the youngest sister, is being released from jail after shooting her husband, Zachery Botrelle, in the stomach because she doesn’t “like the way he looks.”  The scene opens with a desperately lonely Lenny, the oldest sister, celebrating her 30^th birthday alone by trying to light a candle and stick it in a cookie (this does not go well).  Lenny’s pathetic birthday celebration is minimally brightened by the delivery of two presents – a bag of pecans from Doc, Meg’s ex-beau, and a box of Whitman chocolates from the Magrath girls’ cousin Chick, the quintessential small-town snob.  Chick, utterly mortified about the stain Babe has left on what’s left of the family honor, is headed for jail to pick up her errant cousin. The incredibly self-centered middle sister Meg, having gotten word from Lenny of Babe’s predicament, breezes into Hazlehurst from Hollywood, where she has achieved solid failure as a singing star and been briefly hospitalized for depression. The fun never stops – and it’s a tribute to playwright, director, and actors that the audience is able to empathize, but still see the lighter side of all this tragedy.

 

Tyler Hulegaard brings a puppy-dog like naiveté to his small role as Babe’s young, inexperienced (and clearly smitten) lawyer, but his finest moment is a phone conversation where he seems to grow 6” and his voice drops an octave as he tries to intimidate Babe’s wounded spouse.  Blaine Vincent III drips with Southern charm that makes it hard to read his true feelings as Doc Porter, still carrying a small torch for Meg but thoroughly settled in with a wife and family. Deone Jennings is consistently funny, if occasionally a bit over-the-top, as stick-up-her-butt Chick – she provides a lot of the show’s much-needed comic relief.

 

The real heart of the show, of course, is the Magrath sisters.  Leslie Inmon’s “Lenny” provides the lion’s share of the tears (her own, and the audience’s) – her vast range as an actor allows her to mourn, rage, accept, and even find joy, hope, and love in a world that has offered up entirely too much pain. Yelena King’s “Meg” is nearly impossible to love, and King gives her character a chillingly strident narcissism that hides occasional glimpses of the wounded bird beneath her armor. Kelsey Ion’s performance, like her character, is genuinely bipolar – she brilliantly navigates Babe’s dizzying mood swings as she shifts between a delusional, childlike simplicity and genuine empathy.

 

Several years ago, Woody Woodbury designed a beautiful set for the Mask & Mirror production of Crimes of the Heart, and he has definitely matched this earlier effort again at HART.  Before we know anything about the Magrath sisters, the detailed and authentic kitchen set tells a story of a modest, but much-loved home held for generations and built at a time when the kitchen was truly the center of the home and family.  The set dressing by Kathryn Stevens and Virginia Kincaid provides a perfect complement, with a careful eye in all its touches.

 

With three acts, Crimes of the Heart is a relatively long show (almost 2½ hours the night I saw it) despite solid pacing and no set changes.  However, it’s definitely worth seeing, both for the quality of the performances and to support HART’s willingness to participate in the renaissance of live theater.

 

Crimes of the Heart is playing at the HART Theatre, 185 SE Washington, Hillsboro through Sunday, November 7th, with performances Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.