Crimes of the Heart

The College at Brockport’s Department of Theatre and Music Studies will perform Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Crimes of the Heart.”

All that’s needed for a good Southern Gothic tragicomedy are three sisters, a kitchen and some outlandish actions, such as making a pitcher of lemonade immediately after shooting your husband.

Henley constructed a beautiful, kooky contrast between the craziness and heart-wrenching backstories of three Magrath sisters of Hazelhurst, Miss.

“Henley makes sure that the audience is treated to moments of ‘sibling dynamics’ that are hilarious, yet ultimately honest and familiar to many,” says Michael Krickmire, director and faculty member. “To me, the heart of this play is grounded in family…its ups, downs, wounds, healing and longevity.”

The Magraths are quirky, sweet, tender and a bit melancholic, and they are fiercely loyal and summon their sisterly bonds to band together in the face of hardship. The sisters face trials and tribulations—which are presented hilariously—including the jail time served by one of them for that bullet that sunk into her husband (who survives) and potential spinsterhood.

Being Southern women of a certain era, they face strict societal expectations—almost suffocating in their propriety, which the sisters rise up to rally against, including those imposed by their prim and proper and very Southern, but tyrannical grandfather, who lays dying in a hospital as the play begins.

Performances run Friday, Feb. 28 through March 7 at the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage Theatre. fineartstix.brockport.edu