CRIMES OF THE HEART Will Be Performed By Avon Players

Avon Players’ season will continue with a bittersweet story of three women coming home and reconciling the trajectory of their messy lives with their small-town upbringing in Crimes of the Heart, running November 8-23.

In Hazelhurst, Mississippi, the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of their cantankerous grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital.  Lenny (Lisa Denomme), the oldest, is the unmarried family caretaker and fears for her diminishing marital prospects.  Meg (Tara Makar), the free-wheeling middle sister, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast.  Babe (Maia Fetter), the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach and brings with her Barnette (Luigi Murri), the awkward young lawyer trying to keep her out of jail while falling helplessly in love with her.  Their troubles are equal parts grave and hilarious and subject to the judgment of their priggish cousin, Chick (Kelly Miller).  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this touching family story depicts three very different women each trying to escape the prison of her past mistakes in order to seize a brighter future.

Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart has the distinction of being the first play to win the Pulitzer Prize before having been produced on Broadway.  The playwright completed her play in 1978, and her attempts to get several regional theaters to produce it were unsuccessful.  All of this changed when a friend of Henley’s submitted the work without the playwright’s knowledge to the Great American Play Contest at The Actors Theatre of Louisville.   Soon, many regional theaters were mounting productions.  It had its Broadway debut in 1981, and the production launched the career of actor Peter MacNicol (Sophie’s Choice, TV’s Ally McBeal).  Henley adapted her play for the 1986 film of the same name starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek.  Actor Kathleen Turner directed a 2007 production of the play for the Williamstown Theatre Festival featuring Tony Award winner Sarah Paulson which then transferred to Off-Broadway in 2008.

Director Angel Maclean was drawn to the material because of the characters’ internal struggles and how those affect their relationships.  “The ‘crimes’ of the title are actually emotional wounds that each woman carries with her and if these crimes carry punishments, they are largely self-imposed,” Maclean said.  “Audience members of all ages and experiences will relate to the sisters as they navigate the tension between doing what they think other expect of them and following their true hearts’ desires.” 

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