GREENE – Question:  “And why did you shoot your husband?”

Answer:  I just didn’t like his looks, that’s all . . . and I don’t much like yours either.”

Thus begins one day in the manic lives of three southern sisters - one repressed, one irrepressible, and one suffering from being caught smack in the middle. 

The only play to ever win the Pulitzer Prize before opening on Broadway (1981), “Crimes of the Heart” is a comedy laced with homespun humor that takes shots at the heart of Southern traditions, as it offers an illuminating, poignant look at family relationships. It opens Friday at the Chenango River Theatre in Greene.

Besides winning the Pulitzer, “Crimes” received the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, as well as 4 Tony Award Nominations and 3 Drama Desk Award Nominations.

It is an astonishing first play, initially presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, then Off-Broadway, and then on Broadway, where it established the author as a major voice in theatre.  Warm-hearted, irreverent, zany and brilliantly imaginative, the play teems with humanity and humor as it examines the plight of three young Mississippi sisters betrayed by their passions.  Author Beth Henley succeeds in keeping the audience in stitches throughout, using the blackest of humor to illuminate the sisters’ struggles, their rivalries and ultimately their bonds.