Beth Henley’s award-winning play finds comedy in a family’s tragic event.
by Duane Bonifer
COLUMBIA, KY. (07/14/2026) Members of Lindsey Wilson University TheatreFest! hope that lightning will strike twice when they present Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart.”
The award-winning play will be presented at 7 p.m. CT July 30-31 and at 2 p.m. CT Aug. 2 at Lindsey Wilson’s V.P. Henry Auditorium.
Two summers ago, TheatreFest! presented Henley’s 1984 play, “The Miss Firecracker Contest,” to wide acclaim. This year, the summer theatre company is presenting Henley’s first play to reach Broadway — the tragicomedy “Crimes of the Heart.”
“A lot of the cast members of ‘Crimes of the Heart’ were in ‘Firecracker’ two summers ago,” said Lindsey Wilson theatre professor Robert Brock, who is directing the play. “They wanted to do another play by Beth Henley because they enjoyed ‘Firecracker’ so much and audiences also really liked it. So I thought this would be a perfect fit for the cast and our audience. It’s a great play.”
“Crimes of the Heart” is about the three Magrath sisters, who reunite in autumn after the youngest sister, Babe Botrelle, has shot her abusive husband. The entire play takes place in the kitchen of Magrath sisters’ house in the southern Mississippi city of Hazlehurst, five years after Hurricane Camille devastated the region in 1969.
“More than any playwright I know of, Beth Henley has a way of dealing with very serious matters,” said Brock. “She does not make light of them, but she finds the humor in these serious situations. There’s a quirkiness to her, and yet she deals with serious subjects.”
Connecting to characters
Cast members of “Crimes of the Heart” said that one reason Henley’s plays have been popular with area audiences is because people can connect to the story’s characters.
“When we did ‘Firecracker,’ it was one of those plays that just resonated with our community. People are still talking about it,” said Kayla Koerner ’24, a fifth-grade reading teacher at Adair County Elementary School who plays the character Meg Magrath. “The Southern style and the comedy of her work is what audiences like. There are some stories and hardships that everyone can relate to and see in a way that resonates with them, and Beth Henley’s plays do that.”
Koerner said that “Crimes of the Heart” also has the power “to provide healing to a lot of people.”
“The experience of Southern women isn’t always talked about,” she said. “This play has so many things that can resonate with people.”
Graduate assistant Kassidy Phelps ’24, who plays the oldest sister, Lenny Magrath, said that she admires that Henley respects her characters.
“It feels like these are real people, because Beth Henley’s writing style does not really pass judgment on her characters,” said Phelps. “She writes them exactly the way they are, and she doesn’t make people out to be a victim or a villain. She gives them autonomy. She doesn’t tell you how you should feel about them.”
Sabrina Ruiz ’26 of Louisville, Kentucky, was another cast member who lobbied to perform in another Henley play. Ruiz, who plays Babe Botrelle, the youngest Magrath sister who stands accused of shooting her husband, said the play is “a reminder that life is complicated.”
“People are not black or white, they are not good or bad,” said Ruiz, who graduated in spring from Lindsey Wilson with a bachelor of arts degree in theatre and in arts administration. “I have a couple of different monologues, and I just love how Beth Henley writes them because they’re done in a funny way. There’s a lot that you can pull away from it, because it’s so funny but so real at the same time.”
Ruiz — who in August is headed for graduate school at the prestigious Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway — said she is glad her final performance on the V.P. Henry Auditorium stage will be in a Henley play.
“There is just so much I can dive into with this character,” said Ruiz. “Beth Henley’s writing is phenomenal, because what you find in her characters and the story is so rich, and it’s told in a funny way, even when the subjects are very serious.”
Kentucky connection
Although set in Mississippi, “Crimes of the Heart” has roots in Kentucky. Its world premiere was in February 1979 at Actors Theatre of Louisville with a then-little-known Kathy Bates in the cast. That production began a path that included the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; a nomination for Tony Award for Best Play of 1982; and a 1986 film adaptation featuring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek.
For stage manager Mayatu Brown ’27, “Crimes of the Heart” is her first exposure to Henley’s work. She said she quickly understood why there was such an interest in performing another one of Henley’s works.
“She’s an interesting writer who I find hilarious,” said Brown, a theatre major from Campbellsville, Kentucky. “I like the rawness of the characters and how she doesn’t shy away from anything. She keeps it raw and transparent. She doesn’t shy away from the reality of her characters.”
Lindsey Wilson University TheatreFest! will present Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” at 7 p.m. CT July 30-31 and at 2 p.m. CT Aug. 2 in V.P. Henry Auditorium. For ticket information: theatrefest.org.
Lindsey Wilson University students McKenzie Melton ’29 of Lily, Kentucky, and Brandon Grider ’28 Columbia consult instructions for assembling a cabinet on the set of “Crimes of the Heart” on Monday, July 13, in V.P. Henry Auditorium. Beth Henley’s award-winning play will be presented at 7 p.m. CT July 30-31 and at 2 p.m. CT Aug. 2 in V.P. Henry Auditorium.
Lindsey Wilson University TheatreFest! will present Beth Henley’s award-winning “Crimes of the Heart” at 7 p.m. CT July 30-31 and at 2 p.m. CT Aug. 2 in V.P. Henry Auditorium.
Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson offers 30 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university’s 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson University)