Friday night, we all went to see Giorggio Selvaggio play Barnette Lloyd in "Crimes of the Heart" at Civic Theatre West."Crimes of the Heart" is set in a Mississippi town (Hazlehurst), and focuses on the difficulties of three sisters (Lenny, Meg, and Babe). It's the fantastical South of dilatory dialogue, magical thinking, and long, hot afternoons, of the sort that has been explored by many past playwrights and authors (e.g., Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty), but because it's set at such a late date (1980), when race has lost much of its sting and women's liberation is more in vogue, even tragic events can be played for dark comedic effect.
All three sisters were well-played (Christianne Klein as Lenny, Shelby Greer as Meg, and Kayla Rose Chalko as Babe), but I particularly liked Klein's Lenny. Teresa Ahnin as cousin Chick and Shane Burrows as Doc were also well-played. Maybe because the dialogue is so dilatory, I couldn't quite grasp what Barnette Lloyd's vendetta was all about. Is vendetta even the proper word, when grudge might be a better fit? Maybe that's OK - the show is supposed to be a heart-warming comedy. Still, there are no better vendettas than Southern vendettas - they are even better than Italian vendettas!
No comments:
Post a Comment