“Crimes of the Heart,” Beth Henley’s 1981 Pulitzer Prize winning play about three sisters and an interfering cousin living in a fictional Mississippi town, will be performed for the first time at Tent Theatre June 21-22 and 24-29, 2024.

All performances are at 8 p.m. Missouri State University alum Addie Barnhart is the director.

Family, southern gothic style

“Crimes of the Heart” is a dark comedy that follows the Magrath sisters, each of whom remains traumatized by their mother’s suicide years earlier.

To heal and move on, the three must grapple with the past. At times this is made difficult by their self-righteous cousin, Chick, who seems to enjoy reminding the sisters of their mistakes and failings.

MSU alum—and Tent Theatre veteran—Tess Harper played Chick in the 1986 film version of the play. Harper was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

The movie also starred Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek.

Adding a little bit of Ozarks to the role

Harper knows “Crimes of the Heart” very well, having not only played Chick in the film version but also playing “Lenny” in a stage production during a teaching project at the University of Georgia.

To play Chick authentically, Harper pulled from her own experience growing up in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, a small Ozarks community located about 30 minutes south of West Plains, Missouri.

She especially relied on memories of her mother for the role.

“I pulled a little bit from my mother, mostly her ability to talk really fast in a Georgia accent,” Harper laughed.

But she also adopted her mother’s know-it-all attitude toward just about everyone she knew, especially her family, to capture Chick’s sharp, self-righteous edge.

“Chick has a sugary aggression,” Harper said, a quality that reveals itself in the character’s constant complaints about how her cousins’ behaviors are ruining her social-climbing ambitions.

For Harper, who has often been selected for quieter, reflective roles, playing such a loud personality like Chick was a nice change.

“I enjoyed playing Chick so much,” she said.

[Read more…] about Pulitzer Prize winning play “Crimes of the Heart” comes to Tent Theatre