Southern Sisterhood

Although Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” is a 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner, its virtues don’t completely overwhelm the fact that the play is yet another examination of stereotypical Southern women.

The genre shows no sign of wearing out, especially since the way these women (in pretty much all such plays, from “Steel Magnolias” to “Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will”) get to wear trashy clothes and affect strong accents; opportunities like this attract actors like oak trees attract Spanish moss.

Still, “Crimes” is often funny (despite the fact that one of the characters is an admitted murderer) and cuddly. And the version playing through this weekend at Moorpark College’s relatively intimate Studio Theatre is nicely directed by Rolland C. Petrello and generally well acted.

The scene is a small town in Mississippi, long enough ago that (as one member of Friday’s audience noted with wonder) the kitchen doesn’t have a microwave oven.

Rebecca “Babe” Magrath (Sara Ford) has killed her husband because, she says, she didn’t like his looks. The best lawyer in town isn’t available, being the victim, so Babe has hired Barnette Lloyd (Sam Golzari), a qualified but nervous University of Mississippi graduate who has forsaken a potential career in the big city and come home to practice law among the people he’s grown up with (something that winds up having nothing to do with the story, as it happens).

Rallying around Babe are her slightly older sister, Meg (Valerie Elias), who’s come back from an unsuccessful shot as a singer in Hollywood; and the family’s eldest sister, spinster Lenny (Jennifer Kissel), who at 30 just can’t seem to get a man.

Hanging around the periphery are Doc Porter (Matt Ferrill), an old flame of Meg’s; and the sisters’ sardonic cousin, Chick (Hillary Carter-Liggett), who, it appears, can find a catty remark for any occasion.

Stuff happens--not surprisingly, there’s more to Babe’s motive than she’s letting on--though those expecting a solid resolution to everything will be disappointed. More important is that sisterhood somehow conquers all.

DETAILS

“Crimes of the Heart” closes this weekend at the Moorpark College Performing Arts Center on Collins Drive off the 118 freeway in Moorpark. Performances are today through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12, adults; $8, students and seniors; and $7, children. For reservations or further information, call 376-1485.

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Three colleges in Ventura County regularly schedule plays that are open to the public. Moorpark College, Cal Lutheran University and Ventura College all have at least adequate facilities, with Moorpark’s Performing Arts Center possibly the best-equipped theater complex in the county.

There’s nothing wrong with Ventura College’s theater building that can’t be attributed to age, and Cal Lutheran updated its Preus-Brandt Forum a couple of years back, turning a lecture hall into a real theater. A lesser facility on the campus, the “little” theater, is seldom used, and Cal Lutheran occasionally moves productions to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Yet these college productions don’t get as much attention as they deserve. Local media are partly responsible, but part of the problem is with the colleges themselves. Can you believe it? Not one of the college theaters has an address that’s easy to locate. Each gives the campus’ street address as its location, leaving it to the audience to actually find the theater. And, except for Ventura College’s facility, which is visible from Loma Vista Road (and all the way across the campus from the official street address), there’s virtually no signage to lead potential audiences from a main road to the theaters.

And then there’s the parking situation--forget attending a production at Moorpark or Cal Lutheran except on weekends, when students haven’t taken all the spaces.

The parking situation isn’t likely to change, and zoning problems may prohibit signs of adequate size. But even if attending a campus production is a bit of a challenge, it’s often a challenge worth taking.

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Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.