GREENE – Question:  “And why did you shoot your husband?”
Answer:  I just didn’t like his looks, that’s all . . . and I don’t much like yours either.”
Thus begins one day in the manic lives of three southern sisters - one repressed, one irrepressible, and one suffering from being caught smack in the middle. 
The only play to ever win the Pulitzer Prize before opening on Broadway (1981), “Crimes of the Heart” is a comedy laced with homespun humor that takes shots at the heart of Southern traditions, as it offers an illuminating, poignant look at family relationships. It opens Friday at the Chenango River Theatre in Greene.
Besides winning the Pulitzer, “Crimes” received the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, as well as 4 Tony Award Nominations and 3 Drama Desk Award Nominations.
It is an astonishing first play, initially presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, then Off-Broadway, and then on Broadway, where it established the author as a major voice in theatre.  Warm-hearted, irreverent, zany and brilliantly imaginative, the play teems with humanity and humor as it examines the plight of three young Mississippi sisters betrayed by their passions.  Author Beth Henley succeeds in keeping the audience in stitches throughout, using the blackest of humor to illuminate the sisters’ struggles, their rivalries and ultimately their bonds.
It’s the oldest sister’s 30th birthday.  Lenny is on her way to becoming a spinster - she’s the one still living at home, now taking care of Old Granddaddy, who’s in the hospital with “all those blood vessels popping in his brain”.  Her youngest sister, the dim-witted, adorable Babe, just shot her husband in the stomach and is getting bailed out of jail.  She doesn’t want to explain why she shot her high-society husband to anyone, least of all to Barnett, the bright young lawyer they’ve hired to defend her, who also has a long-standing crush on her.  It turns out her husband, Zach, had been abusing her, but Babe has also been having an affair, and there are photos documenting the infidelity (and a surprising shock).
Lenny has summoned the middle sister, Meg, home from California.  Meg went there after Hurricane Camille - abandoning her boyfriend, Doc, who got his leg crushed during the hurricane because Meg insisted on riding out the storm instead of seeking shelter.  He now walks with a limp, and is married, neither of which stops Meg from spending one more night with him.  She was pursuing her singing career, but that ended when she went nuts and was committed to a mental hospital.  She also drinks - a lot.  And let’s not forget that Lenny’s 20 year-old horse, Billy Boy, just died - he was struck by lightning.  Or that their presumptuous, judgmental, social-climbing first cousin, Chick, is in a tizzy because her two kids just ate paint. 
In the end, will the three sisters find ways to escape the ghosts of the past to somehow seize the future?  The only crime would be if you didn’t find out.
For Chenango River Theatre’s production, Heidi Weeks (Toronto), who just starred in CRT’s “Other People’s Money,” plays the pivotal role of Lenny, the plain Jane oldest sister.  Nicole Davidsen (NYC) will portray middle sister Meg, the party girl of the family, while Haley Zale (Michigan, NYC) plays youngest sister Babe.  Betsy Head (NYC) is featured as Chick, the sisters’ society climbing cousin), while Paul Hufker (NYC) plays the lawyer Barnette and Zach Le Vey (NYC) fills the role of Meg’s one time lover Doc.
CRT’s final production of the season, “Crimes of the Heart” runs Oct. 10 - Nov. 2 in the company’s new building at 991 State Route 12, about 3 miles south of Greene.
Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30, plus Sunday matinees at 2.  Tickets are $16 Thursdays, $18 Fridays & Sundays, and $22 on Saturdays.  All performances start on time and there is no late seating. The box office opens one half hour before curtain. For reservations, call 656-8499 (TIXX), or go to www.chenangorivertheatre.org.