A sense of place pervades Beth Henley’s 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Crimes of the Heart,” which is set in the early 1980s in Hazelhurst, Miss. The three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe and Lenny, moved there from the larger city of Vicksburg to care for Old Granddaddy, who’s had a series of strokes and lies in hospital.
Currently seen in a fine production at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad, “Crimes of the Heart” will play in repertory with Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” once again featuring actors Amanda Sitton, Kristianne Kurner and Jessica John as sisters removed from the big city, stifled by life in the country.
The similarities do not end there, as theatergoers have an opportunity to see. On four subsequent Sundays beginning Feb. 25, both plays may be seen in one day.
Local theater aficionados may remember Sitton’s outstanding performances in “Collected Stories” and “Amy’s View,” both at North Coast Repertory Theatre. In “Crimes of the Heart” she affectingly portrays the youngest sister, Babe, who has recently shot and wounded her abusive husband, a state senator.
Kurner plays the obsessive, frowsy oldest sister, Lenny, who still lives in Granddaddy’s house. John portrays the middle sister, Meg, an aspiring country singer who left for the big city some years ago and in the past year suffered a nervous breakdown. All suffer unexplored and unresolved anguish, and why not? Their depressed mother hanged herself and the family cat years before. Despite these facts and the fact that the women are “having a very bad day,” the play is a dark comedy, something New Village Arts excels at producing.
The bad day includes but is not limited to: Granddaddy has had another stroke; everyone forgot Lenny’s 30th birthday; Babe’s interracial love affair has been discovered and documented; and Lenny’s childhood horse has been struck by lightning and killed.
Dana Case, an excellent NVA actor (“The Waverly Gallery” and “A Lie of the Mind”) in her own right, stages “Crimes of the Heart,” evidencing a grand sense of detail and affinity for the company, which includes Wendy Waddell as the sisters’ sniping first cousin, Chick Boyle; Francis Gercke as Doc, Meg’s now-married, sweet wreck of a former lover; and Daren Scott as Barnett Lloyd, Babe’s smitten attorney, who has a vendetta of his own to settle. Scott’s face, physicality and undisguised longing for the ultimately disdainful Babe are delightful indeed.
It’s great ensemble work, and the physical production is supportive in every way, from Adam Bruck’s mood-setting sound design to Eric Lotze’s moody lighting to Kurner’s scenic design, which hints at the household’s former grandeur.
“Crimes of the Heart” continues (in tandem with “The Three Sisters”) through March 18 at the Studio Space at Jazzercise Inc., 2460 Impala Drive, Carlsbad. Tickets are $20-$22. For a detailed performance schedule, visit www.newvillagearts.org or call (760) 433-3245.
