William Somerset Maugham
Asheville Community Theatre
By Teryn Worsham
This month, Asheville Community Theatre (ACT) will bring two works to the stage. First up is Crimes of the Heart, which runs August 12–28. Performances take place on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Directed by Eric Mills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy follows the reunion of sisters Lenny, Meg, and Babe in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. They’ve come together under unfortunate circumstances. Babe, the youngest, shot her husband in the stomach, and is out on bail. During this zany and irreverent tale, the three sisters struggle with the unfamiliarity of being back together and their very different lives and personalities.
From August 26–28, ACT’s volunteer outreach company, The Autumn Players, will present the Readers Theatre Showcase season finale, The Circle. Written by William Somerset Maugham and directed by Elliot Weiner, the three-act British drama addresses timeless questions about love and marriage: Is it better to stay in a dull marriage or should one seek a steamy love affair at the risk of causing pain to others? While visiting his son, Lord Cheney unexpectedly runs into his ex-wife Lady Kitty and the man with whom she ran off years earlier. History threatens to repeat itself as Lord Cheney’s daughter-in-law plans to desert his son for a lover of her own.
This 1921 drama is scheduled for three matinee performances, Friday and Saturday, August 26 and 27, at 35below at ACT, and Sunday, August 28, in the Manheimer Room at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center—1 Campus View Road in Asheville—all at 2:30 p.m.
Adult, senior, and student tickets for opening weekend of Crimes of the Heart are $18. Tickets for performances following opening weekend are $22 for adults, $19 for seniors and students, and $12 for children. Tickets for The Circle are $6. To purchase tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org or call 828.254.1320.
