Affecting and inspiring tale of three sisters has plenty of heart
WILLIAMSTOWN -- With the Williamstown Theatre Festival's breathtaking production of "Crimes of the Heart," actress Kathleen Turner makes an auspicious debut as a director. This tale of three sisters is wrenching without becoming cloying, inspiring without becoming preachy.
Down in the tiny town of Hazelhurst, Miss., the Magrath sisters are having an unexpected reunion. Shattered several years ago by the suicide of their mother, they've gone off in different directions, with Meg (Sarah Paulson) in Hollywood trying to get a singing career going; Babe (Lily Rabe) married to Zachary Botrelle, one of the richest men in the county; and Lenny (Jennifer Dundas) holding down the fort and caring for Old Granddaddy, who took them in after their mother's death. But when Babe shoots her husband because, she says, "she didn't like the way he looked," the sisters come together, rekindling both their rivalries and their essential family bond.
Turner has clearly communicated all of her own passion for these women to her cast, and she directs the story's emotional ebb and flow like a seasoned pro, always avoiding easy, comic rim shots. Each of her actors delivers a character with a distinct spirit beyond the bare-bones descriptions playwright Beth Henley provides. Of course, it helps that Turner is working with an outstanding ensemble.
Dundas, who played Kate in last summer's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company production of "The Taming of the Shrew," provides the mousy Lenny, who feels old beyond her years on her 30th birthday, with both a beleaguered sense of responsibility and a childlike excitement over a birthday wish. As she struggles with her self-confidence, Dundas's fussing with her hair and smoothing of her dress reveal her desire to burst out of her shell.
Paulson plays Meg, the black sheep of the family, with an outward ease beneath which one glimpses her despair and regret. While Meg seems to provoke gossip, jealousy, and bad memories, she pretends she doesn't care. When she meets her old flame and is released from her guilt for abandoning him, you can almost see the weight lifting from her.
Rabe is luminous as Babe, the youngest sister, whose innocent demeanor makes her choices surprising. No sugar-loving simpleton, Babe is wise and protective of people she feels are vulnerable, naive about people who have power over her.
Kali Rocha, who plays the Magraths' cousin Chick, turns a minor role into a scene-stealing turn that brings the energy level up another notch.
Henley, who earned the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for this play, says she was inspired by "Three Sisters," and Chekhov's crazy marriage of comedy and tragedy has clearly influenced her. But it's Henley's touch with quirky details -- a young lawyer who takes on Babe's case because she sold him poundcake at a Christmas bazaar, a birthday marked by the death of a 20-year-old horse, a heated argument over the number of golden jingle bells sewn onto a petticoat -- that makes this simple story so profound. What starts out as a "really bad day" for the Magrath sisters turns into a beautifully realized example that blood is thicker than water. This Williamstown production wears its heart on its sleeve so well, you may be hard pressed not to shout "Surprise!" and wish as hard as Lenny when her belated birthday cake finally arrives.
