Three Sister Comedy at SummerStage

Lenny Magrath the oldest. She’s called her middle sister Meg to come back to her hometown of Hazlehurst, Mississippi. There’s a family emergency involving their baby sister Becky. Becky shot her husband in the stomach because she, “didn’t like his look.” The police know she shot him. She told them. She doesn’t wanna talk about it, though. So she’s going to need a really good lawyer. Only problem is she just shot the best lawyer in town. Once again, playwright Beth Henley’s classic 20th century drama Crimes of the Heart makes an appearance in a local production courtesy of SummerStage of Delafield. Director Kelly Goeller helps a talented cast balance on nuance in a staging bed rather definitely straddles the line between comedy and tragedy.


Brigid O’Brien plays the oldest sister Lenny with a somewhat heroic sense of duty and competence that manages to amplify the characters solitude and desolation. She’s been looking after her ailing grandfather forever. He hasn’t really had a life of her own. O’Brien illuminates the character With a very sturdy, well grounded life that feels very organic. Near the opening of the play, transferred to Lenny is trying to light a candle on the smallest piece of cake imaginable. She’s having difficulty doing so. Still manages to almost sing happy birthday to herself, though. O’Brien captures a very sad moment with the heart and humor that sharply introduce A very sophisticated script.


Abbi Minessale is casually irresistible as middle sister Meg. She’s a free spirit who moved up to Hollywood to pursue musical career that seems to have stalled. The character has a rookie term that Minissale has a little difficulty bringing to the stage.  As she is such a dumb and personality, she’s one of the more difficult characters in the play to render with any sense of sophistication. It would be way too easy to just let the script guide the character. Minessale Find the screen unique heart and comedy of a fish out of water in her hometown and inhabitant with tenderness and grace.


Madison Penzkover might have one of the biggest challenges in the ensemble as Becky Before she even appears on stage, we know that her character has shut her husband in the stomach. When she shows up, she quite casually says that she meant to shoot him in the heart. She says that without even the slightest remorse. And yet Penzkover is able to Come across as a sweet, endearing personality who seems quite open even in her on mysteries. The chemistry between her and Logan Milway might be one of the cutest things on a local stage all summer. Milway has an earthbound valiance in the role of the man looking to represent Becky in court.


Drama and comedy wash over a late summers afternoon In the process of the coming evening. An open domestic setting arrests in a very beautiful park somewhere in the periphery of Milwaukee County. Southeastern Wisconsin becomes a 20th century Mississippi however briefly.


SummerStage of Delafield’s production of Crimes of the Heart runs through Sep. 4th at Lapham Peak State Park. For ticket reservations and more, visit Summerstage online.