Crimes of the Heart Press Release

SOUTHERN SISTERS IN COMIC CRISIS:
CRIMES OF THE HEART

MARCH 31, 1997, SOMERVILLE, MA -- The Basic Theatre Company at the Boston Baked Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, presents Crimes of the Heart, which opens May 1, 1997 and runs through May 17, 1997. This heartwarming comedy from Beth Henley, winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, is a funny, moving script about the demands, conflicts and bonds of sisterhood.

Anyone who has a sister should recognize the special closeness of the Magraths, who talk, cry, argue and love with an honesty and freedom they receive from (and give to) no one else. For them, sisterhood requires sharing. As one of the sisters explains, "...it's a human need. To talk about our lives."

Sisterhood is also, inevitably, about conflict. Even the closest of friends -- let alone sisters -- may be rivals for affection and attention. This is certainly true of the Magraths, whose feuds have been years in the making, and the most insignificant incident may bring long-simmering angers to a boil. It takes only a minor mistake to trigger a full-blown confrontation among all three sisters.

The tensions between these women may drive them apart, but their mutual support and love always reunite them. When calamity threatens -- and this family is in constant danger -- they are there for each other. Such sisterly love allows them to begin healing the wounds of the past and to start planning for a better future.

In the following excerpt from The Playwright's Art (ed. by Jackson Bryer, Rutgers University Press, 1995), Beth Henley explains her outlook on familial relationships in general, especially between women:

Interviewer: "How would you characterize the bonds between the women in your plays? Haveyou drawn on the fact that you have three sisters in those relationships?"

Henley: "I think in Crimes of the Heart very much; growing up around women, I mean. Just having a family, I think, is different from not having a family..You are inextricably bound to them, concerned for them and enraged by them or enraptured by them. Families are a peculiar sort of situation."

"Sisterly love is not something that can be dissected or analyzed," says Dodie Domino, owner-producer of the Boston Baked Theatre. Ms. Domino, who (like Henley) is one of four sisters, plays Lenny Magrath in the BTC production.

"It is a bond like no other relationship in the world," Ms. Domino says. "The love of a sister transcends time, money and station in life. It becomes a spiritual essence that lives in your heart until you die -- and probably goes beyond."

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