Review: GCT Revives Still Delicious ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Arsenic and Old Lace/by Joseph Kesselring/directed by Zoe Bright/Glendale Centre Theatre (GCT)/through November 21

Joseph Kesselring's dark comedy farce Arsenic and Old Lace dates back to 1941 and was made into one hilarious film starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra in 1944. Nevertheless, the comedy is timeless, so it stills holds up quite deliciously in 2015. One never tires of murder especially when it's played out in a spooky old Brooklyn mansion adjacent to a cemetery...and most of the Brewster family who inhabit it are most definitely certifiable. Elderly Abby Brewster (Mannette Antil) and her sister Martha (Sylvia Alloway) dispose of over the hill lodgers all alone in the world - to bring them peace and eternal happiness. They offer homemade Eldeberry wine laced with arsenic and think they're doing the old codgers a favor. It seems perfectly harmless to them. In fact, they already have 11 bodies buried in the cellar and are about to embark on a funeral service for number 12 who is resting comfortably in the windowseat of their living room. It helps when their nephew Teddy (Jim Barkley) - who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt - carries out their orders and buries the bodies, convinced that he's digging locks of the Panama Canal. When brother Mortimer (Jordan Byers) - a drama critic for a local paper - discovers the body by accident, he automatically assumes it's Teddy who has killed the man, never dreaming that his sweet aunts are responsible. The biggest problem for the family arises when Teddy's and Mortimer's brother Jonathan arrives on the scene. Jonathan (Brian Middleton) disappeared years ago, leaving a long trail of criminal activity, including murder, behind him. He is accompanied by Dr. Einstein (James Paul Xavier) - not Albert... Herman, that is - a plastic surgeon who has been providing Jonathan with new disguises by operating on his face after every crime. They're a Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello team if there ever was one, Where one stops and the other begins...go figure!?

Mannette Antil and Sylvia Alloway as the notorious Brewster sisters Abby and Martha

What a gem! Well...if you have great satirical writing like that of Kesselring, how can you lose? He created a family of crazies. with no moral fiber, no sense of conscience. And in American society violence and crime have always engaged audiences, who just love to be simultaneously shocked and entertained out of their minds. It's no different in 2015 than it was in the 30s or 40s. Bad behavior puts bodies in the theatre or movie seats, hopefully not dead ones, of course. When Jonathan reminds Mortimer how he used to, as a boy, stick needles under Mortimer's fingernails to inflict pain, the line gets a huge belly laugh. The playwright doesn't stop with jokes about abuse and violence, though. Oh no, he's ever so smart extending the humor to include takeoffs on police ineptitude and also on the theatre, particularly critics. Mortimer starts to talk about the play he has been forced to sit through tonight where a guy lives in a house beset with murder and mayhem and it would behoove him to run for his life, but he doesn't, for he's trapped. Inside joke, as he's describing himself and the play we are watching Arsenic and Old Lace. Clever fellow, Mr Kesselring!

Laurel and Hardy...no, Middleton and Xavier

In a delightful production of Arsenic at GCT, under the skillful direction of Zoe Bright, the actors pull out all the stops. Antil and Alloway are adorable as the Brewster sisters, so sincere and sweet, you'd almost be happy if they were your own aunties, warts and all. Middleton is deliriously funny as Jonathan and performs some nice physical work with his body, as he stands and walks like the Frankenstein monster, with his pants' cuffs cut at least three inches above the norm. It works to perfection. Equally amusing are Barkley with his irritating "charges" up the staircase as Teddy and Byers as Mortimer, who is wise not to attempt a Cary Grant impression, but whose own wonderment and nervous confusion make the character tick. Xavier is appropriately nerve-wracking as Einstein, Jonathan's other half. Emily Batterson adds fine contrast as the sweet - normal - Elaine, who is engaged to Mortimer. Completing the terrific ensemble are Don Woodruff, Ross Petrarca, Richard Large, Seth Freed, Kyle Kelley and Tom Allen as various police officers and visiting guests.

Byers and Batterson as Mortimer and Elaine

Catch Arsenic and Old Lace at GRT through November 21! It's perfect Halloween entertainment and for that matter, will tickle your fancy at just about anytime of the year.

Barkley as President Teddy Roosevelt...well. Teddy Brewster

www.glendalecentretheatre.com

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