In a year where many of our politicians feel it’s their patriarchal duty to abridge women’s rights, it’s encouraging to see plays on both sides of Tampa Bay that celebrate female empowerment. One running in St. Petersburg through Feb. 5 is a dark Southern comedy ultimately celebrating family. American Stage has mounted a sterling production of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Crimes of the Heart,” which is firmly rooted in the quirky Southern Gothic traditions of Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Conner.
Phone: (941) 366-1505
Why is Omari such an angry young man? A lesser playwright would offer a buzzword equation. White privilege + systemic racism = Black rage. Morisseau doesn’t. Her play doesn’t even define “pipeline.” You either know it, or you get it.
Morisseau’s characters feel like real people. But they’re larger-than-life and burn far brighter. It’s the difference between a flashlight and a laser beam.
L. Peter Callender’s direction honors the playwright’s hyper-reality. His approach to dialogue and physicalization seem natural, never stagey. But he doesn’t shy away from the white-hot intensity of the play’s brightest and darkest moments. When it’s time to go big, he doesn’t play it small. The actors don’t, either.