The play, Crimes of the Heart, written by Beth Henley, is brilliantly charming, and Henley is completely deserving of her Pulitzer-Prize for this piece. My mother suggested I read this play because she says that I am very much like one of the main characters Lenny Magrath, and she said that I would be able to relate to many parts of the story. I found that the beginning of the play was somewhat slow and not very uplifting, but as the play progressed, I found it to be heart-warming, intriguing, and overall very entertaining. Henley, being from the South herself, wrote many of her plays in a mall southern town setting.
The intended meaning of this play is one that can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the reader, but what I believe to be the meaning, that the author was trying to send across, was to simply share the story of three sisters, who no matter how far misunderstandings, quarrels, or rages stretch the bonds between them, the sisters always bounce back to the core of their family which is love. Though they go through many hardships, including sibling conflicts, personal problems and the inevitable death of their grandfather, through everything, family proves to be a very important ey factor in their difficult lives.
The bonds formed between the members of your own family is one of the most solid things in life, and in turn should always be something you can count on. The plays title Crimes of the Heart, relates directly to the play in many key ways that Henley makes evident as the play progresses. The three sisters, all lead very separate lives and are very individual in their characters and personalities but all, in one way or another, commit crimes of the heart. But I believe that the title is derived directly from Babes situation.
She has the most problems, from an busive husband, to trying to find love in a secret relationship with a 15 year old black boy named Willie Jay. When her husband, Zachary Botrelle, discovers this relationship, Babe attempts to kill him and is placed on trial for this attempted homicide. The title is thus derived. However, it is also, I believe, a crime not to follow your heart’s desires. The play had allot of meaning, to me in particular, because I in a way, am like Lenny, the eldest sister. I am, as she is, the glue in the family.
I am the one who helps and puts forth much effort to keep the family bonds strong. My brother is going through a difficult battle with a brain tumor, and through these unimaginable and unexplainably hard times that my family is experiencing, I have had to be the emotionally strong one, pulling my parents together for my little brothers sake. Having to watch my parents come apart and lose it in front of me, the two people who are supposed to keep us, the children, from falling apart, and be strong for us, has been a an experience which has tested my emotional and physical limits.
I am not bitter towards them in any way, but it has been a burden that I, at 19 years old, and eing a college student, was not ready to take on, and it has been a test of my overall strength. But I am grateful to have had my other brother there to help ease the pain for my family when I cannot be with them. Lenny, in the play, is the one of the three sisters, who willingly took on the responsibility of caring for their dying grandfather. She is also the one who has kept the three sisters together. Her character is one that I admire for many reasons.
There is one major difference between the two of us, which is that I am not an overall unhappy person. She made her misery her life, when it should ave just been issues that she had to deal with and move on form like most people do. I believe that the audience can relate to many parts of the play in one way or another. Whether it is having dealt with death of a close family member, or a relative that shares some of the qualities of the three sisters. Beth Henley, was a southern woman, growing up in a small Mississippi town.
She is acknowledged as a scholar, and best known for writing plays combining comedy and suffering, and capture the essence of southern living, in settings of small towns in the South. She is also ecognized as an author that uses women as the main characters. They are usually very misfortunate, and act in ways that are a reaction to the role that men have had men in their lives. In this play, all these defining qualities are shown. One of the women is repressed, one irrepressible, and one is suffering mentally due to being the middle child and they all are scarred by the abandonment of their father and how it affected their mother.
Crimes of the Heart, was first performed by the Actors Theater on February 18, 1979. Many things were happening at that time. One event, though not in any way a major one, was the birth of myself. Crimes of the Heart, is a play of fierce, yet tactful complexity and its humor is somewhat unorthodox. The basic story of this play is of three eccentric sisters who are brought back together, when one of the sisters, Babe, shot her husband in the stomach and was arrested. This occurs simultaneously with the last few days of life for their grandfather.
Each character has some major conflicts, all are direct or indirect results of their father abandoning them and their mother. Lenny, was the eldest of the three sisters, and coped with being the eldest and the only sensible one of the three, and the only ne who deeply sacrificed for the other members of her immediate and extended family. Lenny, overall, was very unhappy with her life. To add to her already sad life, within the first few pages of the play, Lenny celebrated her birthday alone, put candles on cookies, and sang to herself.
She had no boyfriend, and the only one she ever had, that she cared deeply about, she ended the relationship with. She learned that she had a weak ovary while in the relationship, in fear of being hurt and abandoned by him, after he found out that she could not have children, she left him before he could leave her. Lenny realized that she was most likely going to grow old alone, and never get married, and it became a major internal conflict for her. Another conflict, that is later revealed to be major, is Lennys jealousy of Meg, the younger sister, and the favoritism that was shown towards her as they were all growing up.
Meg, twenty-seven years of age, dealt with being the middle child and suffers obvious mental problems, an obsession with death, from being the sister to find their dead mother and cat hanged in the cellar, a suicide not a homicide. She was also dealing with her failed o ttempt at a successful career as a singer and actress in Hollywood. Finally there was Babe, twenty-four years of age and the youngest. She was the most inexperienced and least intelligent of the three, and extremely naive, which gave her a somewhat ditsy quality. With all these mental pitfalls, though, Babe managed to do the unthinkable… murder.
Babe shot her husband simply because, as she just blatantly states in the beginning of the play, she did not like the way he looked But as the play developed, she revealed that she shot him because he caught her with her lover, a fifteen year old black boy, and eing that this story takes place in the South, this was something that was not accepted in society. This was also hard on Babe because she loved this boy, although in the beginning, when this was being developed by Babe explaining to her sister Meg what had happened, I did not get the impression that she was in love with him, but in the end, it was made clear.
The conflicts of each of these women were not all resolved by the end of the play. Some were still there or just somewhat lessened. Lenny began the resolution to her biggest problem or conflict, by calling the man with whom she had ended the relationship with. She explained to him that the reason she told him that they could not see eachother anymore, was because she had a weak ovary and she could not have children, and not because of something he had done. It turned out that he did not like children anyway, and so her major conflict was resolved.
The conflict with her jealousy towards Meg, was not to say resolved, but it was not something that was consuming her in the end. She had so many things going on in her life at one time that it was easy to let her feelings out in jealousy against her sister. Even her birthday, which she spent alone, was amended. Her sisters bought her a birthday cake and let her make a real wish, because as Babe said, wishes only come true if they are made on a cake. Babes conflicts were hardly resolved.
The black boy was sent away as part of a plea bargain and towards the end Zachary, her husband, goes back on his word and tells her that he is going to have her declared insane and put away in a mental institution. Her mental state is, I believe, quite questionable. She has an affair with a 15 year old boy, then tries to kill her husband. Next, came her actions following the phone call from Zachary. She decided that the solution was to end her life. First, she tried to hang herself on the chandelier, but it ripped out of the wall, making her first attempt unsuccessful.
Next, Babe put her head in the oven and turned on the gas. It was not working fast enough so she grabbed a match and was going to cause an explosion which inturn would kill her, but right before she lit the match, she had a revelation. She realized that her mother hung herself with her cat, because she did not want to die alone, and Babe realized that she too did not want to die alone. Meg was still an unsuccessful singer, but she now realized hat she had her sisters, and their love, which were more important than anything else.
Crimes of the Heart, takes place in the late 70s in the hot summer months.. The economic conditions were what are typically generalized about the south. Most people did not have an extreme amount of money, but everyone seemed satisfied. Morally, I think that people were bitter and into everyone elses business. Social standing in the community, and reputations were of highest importance to the people, especially the women. A kitchen, in a little southern town called Hazlehurst, in Mississippi, was where this entire play took place. The kitchen was designed after Beth Henleys grandmothers kitchen.
Although there is no extravagance in the set, the characters and story are enough to have you completely satisfied. Being that Henley is Southern, she writes her plays to depict and capture the essence of the South, and she could not have picked a better time period to do this. It was the time of racial prejudice, and simple southern ways, which she liked to display vividly in her writings. If I were to put on a production of Crimes of the Heart, I would choose to do it at the Maroney Theater. It is simple, which is perfect or the simple kitchen setting I would use for this play.
It has a big stage that can be seen clearly at every angle of the audience, so it would be ideal. For music I would select a few classical pieces appropriate for times of sadness and joy. I would for sure play one song in particular. The song Happy Birthday at the beginning of the play when Lenny is singing to herself on her birthday. Some sound effects that I might use would be: the sound of Docs car coming up the driveway, the sound of Babe slicing the lemons with a big knife, the sound of the chandelier crashing to the ground after Babe tries to hang erself, and maybe a gun shot sound when Babe is telling Meg about the shooting.
There were may roles in Crimes of the Heart. The three Magrath sisters: Lenny, Meg and Babe were the obvious prime characters in the play. Then there was the nosy, bad-mouthing cousin that lived next door Chick Boyle, The Doc, who was the man that Meg left behind to go to Hollywood, Zachary Butrelle, Babes abusive husband, and Willie Jay, Babes fifteen year old lover. Lenny Magrath was a character that I found to be most interesting. I imagine her, form the descriptions and from her character throughout he play to be a mildly attractive woman.
She is in her thirties but I imagine her to look a little bit older. She is not dressed very well. She dresses very conservative, and in very boring earthy toned clothes. Lenny is very uptight kind of person, keeping everything neat, getting annoyed when things are a mess, because it makes her life seem chaotic and she likes to be in control of everything. She gets upset easily making it seem like all her real emotions are bottled up inside, and only come out in lashes. Her life is not very exciting nor is it a joyful one. Lenny does not want to grow old and be alone like her mother felt.
She ends up rekindling the relationship with the man, and her attitude changes right away. She was acting carefree and was acting in an almost childish manner, yelling and hopping around the kitchen. She was not going to be alone anymore, and that made everything all right. Calling him in the first step was a huge step for Lenny, being as soft-spoken as she is. The costumes I imagine are pre-eighties-looking. Not stylish in any way at all. Very basic costumes, like sun dresses that women in the South are thought to have worn.
No bright colors mainly earth tones were the primary colors, and the materials and patterns looked cheap. If I were to present this play I believe I would want to keep the same motif. The entire time I read the play, the costumes were just as I have described and I believe it helps to get the idea and story of the play across successfully. The story itself is quite complex and interesting in itself, so costumes should be simple in order to keep the audience interested. There is no need for loud, busy costumes. They would only negatively affect the overall production of this wonderfully intriguing play.