Tragicomedy gets to the heart of relationships
Crimes of the Heart’s story is still relevant after more than three decades
Sisters can be best friends one moment and bitter enemies the next.
This is the sentiment at the heart of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning 1981 tragicomedy Crimes of the Heart.
Like Lenny, the character she plays in Simply Theatre’s production of Crimes of the Heart, Jenn MacLean has ridden the emotional roller-coaster that is sibling rivalry.
Crimes of the Heart is the story of the three Magrath sisters of Hazelhurst, Miss., whose troubled relationships come to a boil when Babe, the youngest sister, shoots her abusive husband.
MacLean plays the oldest sister, Lenny, who stayed home to care for their grandfather in his later years. Meg (Brit Kennedy) is the middle sister who left home to pursue fame and fortune as a singer but drowned her dreams in alcohol. Babe (Jen Leclaire) got herself so tangled in an abusive marriage that she chose the most shocking way out.
Now the sisters have to deal with Babe’s crime as well as their personal and shared crimes of the heart.
“I’m the middle child of three sisters so I can definitely find similarities in Henley’s characters and my own life,” says MacLean.
“I was always the black sheep in my family, too. I was definitely rebellious.”
MacLean said it would have been easy for her to play Meg, but the director, James Noonan, gave her a real challenge by casting her as Lenny, the sister who sacrifices her own happiness and chance of a relationship to make sure everyone else is OK.
“She is the loving, doting sister in the family and her strength and stability are a challenge for me to play, so I’m grateful for the opportunity.”
MacLean explains that Lenny sacrificed her personal happiness to care for her dying grandfather because he had stepped in to care for her and her sisters when their father left and their mother committed suicide.
“Selflessness like Lenny’s can push you to try harder in your personal life or it can make you give up easily for fear of failure and this is what we see in Lenny over the course of the play.”
MacLean says she refused to watch the film version of Crimes of the Heart, which starred Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek.
“I didn’t want the movie to affect the way I played Lenny. Just reading the play, I had a sense of how she should be played because I know people like her.”
Although Crimes of the Heart is now 36 years old, MacLean is adamant the storyline itself is not dated.
“There is too much truth in Henley’s observations. The kinds of dynamics Henley explores in the play are built into sibling rivalry, which makes her play both universal and timeless.”
Another reason Mac Lean was excited to be part of Simply Theatre’ s Crimes of the Heart is because “this is one of those rare plays with fantastic roles for women.”
In addition to the three sisters, Henley’s play introduces its audiences to several other characters. There’s Chick Boyle (Mallorie Miller), the troublemaker cousin; Doc Porter (Tim McRae), the man Meg abandoned to pursue her career; and Barnette Lloyd (Michael Armstrong), Babe’s lawyer and a family friend.
MacLean says the genius of Henley’s plays is that “it finds humour in all the really serious and bizarre incidents in these women’s lives. This is one of the reasons Crimes of the Heart has become a staple of community theatre.”
Simply Theatre’s version runs in the Pumphouse’s Joyce Doolittle Theatre from Dec. 8 to 16.
You can purchase tickets in advance by calling 587-575-5656 or online at simplytheatre.ca.
Seating is limited in the Doolittle Theatre, so it is advisable to reserve tickets in advance.