Review: Theatre Artists Studio Presents CRIMES OF THE HEART

Just because you're having a very bad day, you may want to hang yourself. Or, just because you don't like the ugly looks of your abuser, you may want to shoot him. Or, just because you've failed at your dream, you may want to drown in lies or a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Such are the anomalies in the mindsets of the dysfunctional characters chiseled by Beth Henley in her first full-length play, CRIMES OF THE HEART ~ a poignant and ironic portrayal of three sisters (hints of Chekhov but with a distinct Southern Gothic twist) that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1981 and went on to garner a spate of nominations and awards for its movie version.

All the ingredients are here for a finely textured, heavily layered, and highly nuanced set of performances ~ quirky characters, dark humor, and catastrophe.

Theatre Artists Studio in Phoenix attacks the challenge with zest, and the result, under Brad Allen's direction, is a stirring production of CRIMES OF THE HEART.

Allen, with the assist of Patti Davis Suarez, has enhanced the play of emotions and revelations with a homey, inviting, and finely detailed set. Where better than the kitchen to share secrets, tell stories, and feed the soul!

It is the unfed soul of Lenny Magrath that is first on display. And it is Dee Rich who delivers a defining and compelling performance as the eldest sister left behind to care for her dying (hospitalized) grandfather and to wonder whether spinsterhood is her fate. Flustered and defeated by aging and the tedium of her existence, and haunted still by her mother's suicide, Lenny lives a life of quiet desperation.

The quiet, however, suffers it, own intrusions, forthwith first by her meddlesome and self-righteous cousin, Chick. Julie Lee is priceless as the unnerving harbinger of local gossip and the judge and jury of other people's lives. Lee shows her subtle comic chops in a splendid moment of fitting into a stubborn pair of pantyhose.

The news of the day is sister Babe's shooting of her husband. Babe on bail (Ashley Faulkner) takes refuge in Lenny's home. Sister Meg (Debra Rich) alights as well, returned from a failed career as a singer in Hollywood. If Lenny is tightly wound, then Beth is as loose as a goose and Meg is a half-loaded pistol.

Doc Porter (Aaron Seever), Meg's boyfriend from an earlier time ~ now older, married, and not necessarily wiser ~ shows up and memories of a past romance are rekindled and with them a haunting reminder of Meg's broken promise. Debra Rich does well in conveying Meg's pain and longing for reconnection. The interplay with Doc would be all the more compelling if her counterpart were as believable.

Joshua Vern rounds out the cast with a finely caricatured turn as Barnette Lloyd, the young attorney who dutifully defends Babe.

Can there be a light at the end of the tunnel, a silver lining in the dark clouds that hang over the heads of Lenny, Babe, and Meg Magrath? Henley offers a message of hope that is wrapped in a final embrace.

Theatre Artists Studio's CRIMES OF THE HEART runs through September 20th.

Photo credit to Bill Phillips

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