SOURCE: "Living Beings, Cardboard Symbols," in New York Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 45, 16 November 1981, pp. 125-26.

Below, Simon evaluates the Broadway production of Crimes of the Heart, declaring that "this is one of those rare plays about a family love that you can believe and participate in. "

Readers can find my initial reaction to Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart in the January 12 New York Magazine. One more Manhattan Theatre Club and now one Broadway viewing later, my fondness and admiration for the play remain undimmed, although the focus of my perception has shifted slightly. You may recall that the play concerns the three MaGrath [sic] sisters of Hazlehurst, Mississippi: earnest Lenny, whose forgotten thirtieth birthday this is—a timid, faintly hysterical, semivirginal young woman, dedicated to keeping hospitalized Granddaddy alive; promiscuous Meg, who started out as a singer, damaged loving "Doc" Porter's leg and ruined his chances at medical...