The Denver Victorian Playhouse presents

The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Drama

Crimes of the Heart

By Beth Henley

Directed by Terry Dodd

Them MaGrath sister sure do have a way with the boys!

The Denver Victorian Playhouse opens "Crimes of the Heart" on Thursday, April 17 with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. through May 17. Tickets are $15 on Thursdays; $22 Friday - Sunday. Groups, Senior and Student discounts available. For tickets call 303-433-4343. More information at www.denvervic.com.

The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three MaGrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing/acting career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach "because she didn't like his stinkin' looks." Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future-but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.

Once again director Terry Dodd brings together the dynamic and award-winning talents of Emily Paton Davies as Babe, Laura Norman as Lennie and Megan Van De Hay as Meg. These three were last seen together as the delicious, malicious wives in the Avenue Theater's 2006 production of "Smell of the Kill". For comic support Dodd has rounded out the cast with Brian Brooks (Barnette Lloyd), Susie Scott (Chick Boyle) and Nils Swanson (Doc Porter).

Playwright, screenwriter, and sometime actress Beth Henley first entered the critical spotlight in 1978 when one of her plays-a black comedy about three maladjusted sisters set in the small town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi-won the Great American Play Contest sponsored by the Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. Crimes of the Heart went on to win several more awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best new American play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, both in 1981. Henley also received a Tony Award nomination for best play and, five years later, an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. The play and subsequent film version showcased Henley as one of a new breed of American dramatists dedicated to preserving regional voices on the stage.

"Crimes of the Heart" is currently enjoying a limited Off-Broadway run at the Laura Pels Theatre,

directed by Kathleen Turner.

Denver Victorian Playhouse presents

"Crimes of the Heart"

Apr. 17 - May 17

Thur.\Fri.\Sat. at 7:30 p.m.; Sun. at 2 p.m.

Tickets $22.00

$15 on Thursdays

4201 Hooker St., Denver

Call 303-433-4343

denvervic.com