This past weekend, the Saint Mary’s College Theater department performed a senior comprehensive, Acts 2 and 3 of “Crimes of the Heart,” as the culmination of seniors Caidi McDonald and Lucy Smith’s undergraduate degrees in theater. When audiences first walked into the Moreau Center for the Arts, they were greeted by the director, McDonald. She led them all the way onto the stage of the Little Theater, where folding chairs were set around the stage, pulling the audience into an incredible sense of intimacy with the cast. This stage design was used to the fullest throughout the show, from Meg Magrath (Morgan Allred) standing right in front of an audience member to primp herself in front of the mirror – much to the laughter of the audience – to Babe Magrath (Siena Patterson) asking an audience member to hold onto her suitcase for the majority of the Second Act.
Due to the project’s time constraints, McDonald decided to stage only the second and third acts of the play. Still, to keep the audience from becoming too confused, a projector displayed a video summary of the first act. As someone who had never seen “Crimes of the Heart,” I appreciated the video. Although the five-minute video did not seem to cover much of what I needed to know and left me somewhat confused about the performance, that confusion lasted only a few minutes into act two.
“Crimes of the Heart” follows the Magrath sisters coming back to their childhood home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, following the youngest sister killing her husband in a way that mirrors how their mother killed herself when the girls were children. The chemistry among all three sisters was amazing, and you could tell the actors were incredible friends, which always brings an amazing energy to the audience.
Given that the story takes place in Mississippi, all the actors donned a southern accent. Some of them were better than others. Lenny Magrath (Grace Tudor) did one pretty well, even if her hair kept getting caught in her mouth when she spoke. Most of the cast did very well at projecting, though two minor characters, Doc Porter (Jenna Sluder) and Chick Boyle (Pearl Stengle), did not. I had trouble hearing them throughout the performance, and in such a small space that should not have been a problem.
The story also required a lot of physical comedy, which the whole cast excelled at, whether it was chasing the other cast members around the room or drinking three glasses of lemonade in succession. Babe Magrath (Patterson) had the lion’s share of this physical comedy, and she does it incredibly well. It takes an especially skilled actor to drink all that stuff on stage without getting anything caught in her throat. Amidst this slapstick, the play also contains several references to intimate partner violence and suicide. However, the cast and director handle these topics with incredible taste, properly warn the audience about them before the performance and, when they do occur, do so carefully with a lot of respect for both potentially triggering topics.
“Crimes of the Heart” was performed in the Little Theater in the Moreau Center for the Arts this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you missed this one, do not worry, there will be a second senior comprehensive by Abigail Wojtaszek performed in a few weeks; I know that I’ll be looking out for that one.
