Review: Welk Resort Presents Sturdy ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Arsenic and Old Lace/by Joseph Kesselring/directed by Randall Hickman/Premiere Productions at Welk Resort Theater, Escondido/through August 28 only

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 still holds up quite deliciously in 2016. 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 (Robin LaValley) and her sister Martha (Eliane Weidauer) 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 window seat of their living room. It helps when their nephew Teddy (Robin Thompson) - 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 (Tim Benson) - 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 (Joe Paulson) disappeared years ago, leaving a long trail of criminal activity, including murder, behind him. He is accompanied by Dr. Einstein (David Gentry) - 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!?

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 2016 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!

In a delightful production of Arsenic by Premiere Productions guesting at the Welk Resort, under the uber skilled direction of Randall Hickman, the actors pull out all the stops. LaValley and Weidauer are adorable as the Brewster sisters, so sincere and sweet, you'd almost be happy if they were your own aunties, warts and all. Paulson is deliriously funny as Jonathan, copying the vocal style of Raymond Massey, who played the role on film, almost to the letter. It works to perfection. Equally amusing are Thompson with less "charges" up the staircase as Teddy - director's choice? - and Benson as Mortimer, who is wise not to attempt a Cary Grant impression, but whose own wonderment and nervous confusion make the character tick. Gentry adds his own sense of quirkiness to Einstein, Jonathan's other half. Helen Brehm adds fine contrast as the sweet - normal - Elaine, who is engaged to Mortimer. Completing the terrific ensemble are Kenneth Gray, Jacob Hatch, Doug Olive, George Roswell and Douglas Davis as various police officers and visiting guests. Terrific set design by Randall Hickman.

Catch Arsenic and Old Lace through August 28 only! Its unique, irreverent sense of humor will tickle your funny bone and keep you laughing from start to finish.

https://welkresorts.com/san-diego/theatre/

To post a comment, you must register and login.