“Crimes of the Heart” scheduled to open February 26

“I am not liberal, I am a democrat, I was just lonely.” ” … after I shot him I put the gun down on the piano bench and went to the kitchen and made a pitcher of lemonade … Yes … I was dying of thirst my mouth was just dry as a bone,” is one of the favorite quotes from three sisters in CEU’s theatre department’s production of “Crimes of the Heart” opening February 26 in the Geary Theatre.
Directed by Todd Olsen, the play is the story about two days in the lives of three sisters. The story raises very important issues: (1) mental health, because there is a history of depression in the family. Their mother committed suicide by hanging herself with the old yellow cat. One sister is trying to do the same thing. She has the most hysterical approaches. Then she kept talking about her mother as a transference of her own feelings of depression. (2) Racism, a white woman from the South having an affair with a black young man under age; (3) Physical abuse, one sister was abused by her husband. That is why she shot him. (4) Another sister is aging and the sisters kept talking about whether she was still a virgin. (5) the aging grandfather, etc.
Olsen wanted to produce the play because, “I saw the production, a really bad production, in Los Angeles two years ago. I knew the only way to exorcize the demons would be to produce it myself.”
His favorite part of the play is, “When the characters Babe and Meg talk and dream about how big the birthday cake will be they are getting Lenny.”
The cast includes: Diana Halford, Sheri Gillies, David Bohnet, Angie Roundy, Melissa Spencer and Gacob Dickey. The production is stage managed by Phil Smith.