Death and insanity? That's funny stuff

COEUR d'ALENE - How's this for a tragic tale?

Three sisters were abandoned.

Their mother committed suicide when they were young.

They were moved to live with their grandparents.

The youngest sister shot her husband.

The middle sister had a bout with insanity.

The grandfather is dying.

Geez, pretty heartbreaking, stuff? Tears will roll.

Wrong.

It's funny. You'll be laughing at "Crimes of the Heart."

"All of those things don't sound like comedy. I call it tragic comedy," said director Trigger Weddle. "The great thing is, the way Beth Henley wrote the play, the language, it just happens the audience perceives it as funny and it is."

The play presented by the North Idaho College theater department opens tonight, the first of six shows at Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center.

All are free and open to the public.

The cast, which features students Kelsea Mort of Post Falls, Emily Cleveland of Hayden and Brittney LaCalli of Coeur d'Alene, as well as community members Jordan Schaefer, Jonathan Wenger and Anthony St. Claire, is ready for the curtains to rise.

"When you get to a certain point with rehearsal you need an audience," Weddle said, smiling. "I'm laughing my head off but they don't hear my laughter anymore."

Weddle, who has a master's degree in drama, has been involved in theater 40 years. She's also the artistic director for the Christian Youth Theater of North Idaho and is working on "Little Mermaid."

She and NIC theater director Joe Jacoby selected "Crimes of the Heart" for their winter production. The Pulitzer Prize winning comedy is about three sisters from Hazelhurst, Miss., who "face all of their family's dysfunction as they deal with their dying grandfather and the youngest sister's wounded husband."

"This is a beautifully written play, with a story so truthfully told that as we laugh at the silliness of the characters and their actions, we also see ourselves," Jacoby said in a press release.

Weddle said she was in "Crimes of the Heart" 20 years ago as an actress and knows it well.

"I knew the script like the back of my hand," she said. "But it's always different to be the performer and then step away from it and see the big picture."

As director, Weddle said it's her job to interpret the play for the audience.

"The director is the go-between between the story and the audience," she said. "It's the director's job to be sure they get the play's right intention."

And that, despite death, insanity and abandonment, is laughter.

Those who attend will see "a very funny place about a family that's going through some trials and tribulations that all families do. They'll be able to connect with the characters, they'll be able to laugh, have a good time and really enjoy seeing some solid acting."