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The Arts
11.02.11

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Phaedra

Twisted Sisters

Cinnabar's 'Crimes' is wonderfully weird

By David Templeton


The Magrath sisters are having a bad day. Then again, the three Southern siblings have never fully recovered from their mother's suicide or figured out why she hung the cat alongside her.

In Cinnabar Theater's Crimes of the Heart, pretty much everyone is damaged goods: Babe (Ivy Rose Miller), the youngest, just shot her rich husband; Meg (Dana Scott) is a reckless flirt with a fascination for pictures of skin diseases; and Lennie (Sarah McKereghan), the oldest, is convinced her "shrunken ovary," whatever that is, has doomed her to a life of loneliness.

Directed by Sheri Lee Miller, this lovingly funny comedy by Beth Henley clips along, as the sisters throw their tentative support to Babe, who has more to lose than anyone knows. By the end, a new day may actually be dawning for the Magraths, who finally find a glimmer of healing. In a hilariously redemptive moment, they even learn what may have possessed their mom to hang the cat. And like much of this wonderfully weird, warm play, it isn't what anyone expects.

Crimes of the Heart runs Friday–Sunday through Nov. 6 at the Cinnabar Theater. 3333 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. Friday–Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 2pm. $15–$25. 707.763.8920. www.cinnabar.org.


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