Dysfunction Junction
Published: October 17th, 2008
By: Jeff Genung

Dysfunction Junction

The Chenango River Theatre is doing a great job of helping me relive some of my favorite ‘80s movies, live and on stage. First, it was “Other People’s Money” last month; now, it’s “Crimes of the Heart.”

You remember that 1986 chestnut, don’t you? All Southern Gothic with a comedic twist and an all-star cast - Sissie Spacek, Jessica Lange and Diane Keaton? Well I’d forgotten most of it, actually. If memory serves, I saw it at the dollar theater in Oswego, dragged there by a bunch of girls from my dorm and thoroughly unimpressed, despite what the critics at the time were saying.

The folks down in Greene, quickly becoming my favorite troupe, changed that impression last weekend as I got to see “Crimes of the Heart” up close and personal.

And personal, it is. Weaving parody and melodrama seamlessly, “Crimes” tells the story of three Southern Belles – Lenny, Meg and Babe McGrath, who converge on their hometown of Hazelhurst, Miss. after young Babe is accused of shooting her elderly husband. It doesn’t take the audience long to figure out that the McGrath girls are about as dysfunctional as they come. Raised by their grandfather after their mother hung herself (and the cat – don’t ask) in the basement, Lenny (Heidi Weeks) is a wallflower and worrywart, Meg (Nicole Davidsen) is a boozy washed-up singer, and Babe (Haley Zale) is a few dances short of a cotillion.

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