Crimes of the Heart Show Characters

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Babe (Betsy Rabkin) is the youngest of the Magrath sisters. She faces charges of attempted murder for shooting her husband, Zackery Botrelle. Babe is the most innocent -- and yet the most troubled -- of the three women.

Relationships with other characters: Babe seems to serve as the confidante of both her sisters, when they can't or won't talk to each other. (Specifically, she knows the "strange things" Meg did to deal with the pain of their mother's death. Babe also was trusted with Lenny's secret about her relationship with Charlie in Memphis.) Babe can't stand Chick, and knows the feeling is mutual.

Zackery, her husband, abused her verbally and physically. She shot him after he mistreated a young black boy (with whom she'd been having an affair). He's the most powerful man in all of Hazlehurst; despite Babe's sunny demeanor, she knows full well that she doesn't have much of a chance against him in court.

Quotes: "I told her, 'Mama got national coverage! National!' and if Zackery wasn't a senator from Copiah County, I probably wouldn't even be getting state-wide."

"Well, after I shot him, I put the gun down on the piano bench and then I went out into the kitchen and made up a pitcher of lemonade."

"That's what is happening -- 'cause here I am just about ready to go right off to the Parchment Prison Farm. Yes, here I am just practically on the brink of utter doom. Why, I feel so all alone."

"Oh, don't resent Meg. Things have been hard for Meg. After all, she was the one who found Mama."

"It's like how I went out and bought that saxophone...I just went out and did it. Just on hope."

Notes: "I had gotten to Act III, and I just had images. I knew there was going to be a birthday cake, and I knew there was going to be a rope or a suicide. Then I discovered it was Babe and I said, 'Oh no, Babe's going to die? Oh well, you have to keep writing! This is really going to be a tragedy. I thought this was kind of being comedic, but no, it's a big tragedy, and they're going to have the birthday cake without her!" (Beth Henley, from The Playwright's Art, edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Rutgers University Press, 1995.)