Review from ReviewPlays.com - Crimes of the Heart
August 14, 2003
After winning a Pulitzer, where do you go from there? The Athena Theatre decided to host their Inaugural Event at The Actor's Workout Studio, which is not a bad place to follow up on Beth Henley's drama-comedy of a Mississippi family of women facing the cliché riddled fork in the road. Southern accents flail wildly in this presentation, where three sisters are brought together by the extreme illness of their grandfather and the possible incarceration of the youngest, who shot her husband in the stomach.
These Southern women have a strange way of expressing their feelings. Babe, the baby of the three keeps saying she shot her husband because she didn't like him anymore. She later divulges the trivial detail that the husband caught her doing the nasty with neighbor Willie Jay, a fifteen year old - who just happens to be Black. Her color blindness is admirable, even if her anger management could use a bit of a tweak.
In truth, all the women have issues, from the oldest who's sees herself a victim of life and self appointed guardian of the grandfather, to the middle one who is a failed singer returning from Hollywood, to the cousin who is a Prima Donna wannabe socialite.
As played by this wonderful cast, the four women have great interaction between them, and the brisk dialogue keeps the play alive and believable. When Babe explains why she shot the husband, you just know that this girl isn't paddling with all the oars and you see her boat sinking faster than a bailing bucket with a hole. Vèronique Ory is great in this part, with just the right innocent look which keeps you guessing if she's really slow, or a black widow.
Bubbly Meg is the singer, and Tessa Munro nails the part with the true charm of a Southern Belle, sweet and perky, but not above having a little fun on the sly and getting her way when she wants it. Cousin Chick is married, and rubs it in with brilliant sarcasm as Emily Stiles becomes the snooty but beautiful outsider who thinks that she's just too - too good to hang around the riff raff her cousins have become.
The outwardly strong and responsible Lenny, who is becoming the head of the house could not have been better as played by Cameron Meyer in a conservative old lady dress, celebrating a birthday alone, with a candle and an oatmeal cookie. Meyer is excellent as the sister who tries to keep the family going, secretly harboring romantic desires, but suppressing them because of a medical condition that keeps her barren.
Director Elizabeth Welsh moves the action quickly, pacing the comic scenes with the more serious elements of the story. Never overplaying it, she wisely backs off the melodrama which could have easily taken over some of the more heart tugging moments.
Behind the issues of the sisters waiting for the grandfather to die, and struggling with their love lives, is the struggle of siblings who have to balance family love with family feuds and resolve years of antagonism and bitterness between them.
In the final analysis, when it seems that Babe is sure to go to jail, they all pull together in mutual support, realizing that regardless of the past, they still have each other to lean on.
Oh yes - there are two men in the play. Scott Tyler plays Doc, a former flame of Meg, who is now married with two children. Widely criticized for having married a Northern girl, Cousin Chick is appalled that his children are "half Yankee." No self respecting Southerner would even allow that to happen. However Doc isn't about to let a little detail like a wedding band get in the way of a one night fling with Meg, especially since she seems so willing. Tyler comes across more like Gomer Pyle than Casanova, so its hard to believe a looker like Meg would go for him . . . but this is the South , and perhaps it's not easy to find men who aren't your blood kin - at least once removed.
Matt Braaten plays Babe's lawyer, and you know he's no kin to anyone, with his nervous twitches and stammering accent. For a brilliant lawyer, he sure doesn't have it together with women, but for some guys, walking and chewing gum just don't mix. Bratten makes lawyer Barnett Lloyd appear to have trouble doing both but lucky for him Babe seems to have a crush on him. She sure forgot about Willie Jay real fast.
We don't learn if Babe will be convicted of the shooting, or if Lenny will connect with a former date, or if any of the other setups that are presented will work or not. In that sense, this is a very direct play, that is a look at the present moment, a brief glimpse of the past, and a huge question mark about the future.
A little bit like daily life, only more fun.
CRIMES OF THE HEART
Directed by: Elizabeth Welsh
Lenny Magrath..................................................Cameron Meyer
Chick Boyle..........................................................Emily Stiles
Doc Porter...........................................................Scott Tyler
Meg Magrath.........................................................Tessa Munro
Babe 'Magrath' Botrelle......................................Veronique Ory
Barnette Lloyd......................................................Matt Braaten
Actor's Workout Studio
4732 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood, CA