'Tis the season for candy canes, popcorn balls and chestnuts. But the tastiest chestnut of the season is Theater Three's production of Joseph Kesselring's 1941 classic, Arsenic and Old Lace. Originally produced at the Fulton Theater in New York on August 18, 1941 by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (Life With Father) and starring Josephine Hull as Abby Brewster and Boris Karloff as her evil nephew, Jonathon, Arsenic and Old Lace is a comic murder mystery and a delightful send-up of theater critics.
The play is set in the living room of Abby (Ouida White) and Martha Brewster (Sally Cole), two pixilated sisters past their prime; and their nephews Mortimer (Jim Sullivan), a drama critic for a New York newspaper, and Teddy (Dane Hoffman) who is delusional and thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. The sisters take in lonely old men as boarders, and in the spirit of charity, make their final days peaceful -- and swift -- by spiking the sisters' home-made elderberry wine with just a wee bit of arsenic, and burying the gentlemen -- all 12 of them -- in the cellar.
Jonathon (Terry Dobson) the long-lost wicked brother and international serial killer, arrives unexpectedly with his partner in crime, a plastic surgeon by the name of Dr. Einstein (Dean Mounir), and things are never quite the same in the Brewster household.
As the scene opens Abby is entertaining the sisters' next-door neighbor, Reverend Harper (Richard Hill), whose daughter, Elaine (Amy Anders Corcoran) is Mortimer's girlfriend. Reverend Harper is concerned with Mortimer's "....unfortunate connection with the theater." Abby assures him Mortimer writes for a newspaper, and Harper replies: "I know, Miss Abby, but a dramatic critic is constantly exposed to the theater, and I don't doubt but what some of them do develop an interest in it." Abby tries to assuage his fears by telling him: "...Mortimer hates the theater ... he writes awful things about the theater ... he was so happy writing about real estate, which he really knew something about, and then they just made him take this terrible night position."
When the house is turned into chaos as the bodies begin to pile up, Mortimer frantically attempts to convince his editor on the phone that he can't review that evening's performance. The editor is unmoving. As Mortimer resignedly borrows some stationery from Abby and rushes out the door, he tosses this send-up: "I can save time if I write my review on the way to the theater."
Also thrown into the mix is Officer O'Hara (Tom Lenaghen), of the New York Police Department; however, he's actually an aspiring playwright who implores Mortimer to work with him on his play, because, "this being on the police force is just temporary." He's only been on the force for 12 years "collecting material for a play." With Mortimer's references to Abby looking like Judith Anderson and Jonathon resembling Boris Karloff, this play is most definitely a period piece and needs to be enjoyed as such. With a keen sense of the absurd and a willingness to suspend disbelief, director Kyle McClaran has taken this production of Arsenic and Old Lace into another stratosphere. But for playgoes familiar with McClaran's work, they should expect nothing less. He is not afraid to take what could have been a stodgy period piece and punch it up to elicit maximum laughs.
The entire cast gave excellent performances, with Terry Dobson and Dean Mounir doing outstanding characterizations. T3 veteran Harland Wright's set and Carl Munoz' lighting design create the perfect mood and are enhanced by the wonderful period costumes by Patty Korbelic Williams and whismical wigs by Ryan Matthieu Smith. He's also responsible for make-up that's especially effective in transforming the usually gentle appearance of Dobson into a downright scary version of the evil Jonathon.
In true keeping with McClaran's visionary creativity, the curtain call offers a wonderfully stylized tableau. Theater Three is batting 1,000 this season with a solid four-out-of-four productions.
