Beth Henley

A southern family faces a crisis when one of the sisters shoots her husband. This happens before the play begins; the bulk of the play is less about the shooting than about the relationships between the three girls, with a couple of other factors thrown in for complexity. Difficult to find too many people in this group to like, or to feel sympathy with, but there is still the ability to engage as you watch people losing all touch with reality and moving toward destruction. The ending is ambiguous and unresolved; that is not a complaint, as I often find that compelling in a dramatic work. It's hard to see this as a masterpiece, but it is definitely past competent, with the various threads skillfully woven, though a few stitches are dropped in the weaving.… (meer)