Review: ACT 1's Outdated ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace, a genteel and sometimes beguiling "suspense comedy," is a favorite among the nation's various and sundry community theater companies. And for good reason: It's slyly amusing, despite its age, and it features some genuinely engaging (if somewhat despicable, depending upon your perspective) characters who have entertained audiences for 75 years (it bowed on Broadway in 1941).

The classic film version of Arsenic and Old Lace, which starred Cary Grant in an altogether charming portrayal of the play's central character (New York Theater critic Mortimer Brewster), has created an indelible impression since its 1944 release and any company who revives the stage comedy better be up to the challenge of competing against those long-held memories of a favorite movie, its leading man and the slightly daft pair of spinster aunts who give the story its sprightly and engaging tone.

Would that ACT 1's production - now onstage at Nashville's Darkhorse Theatre through October 22 - had the necessary elements to go up against our affection for the classic film or of any number of other stage productions we've seen over the years (most recently, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre presented a revival we called "sparkling" in September 2015). Unfortunately, this season's Arsenic seems less a refreshing mounting of a time-honored play as it does a retread of a timeworn comedy that has, quite frankly, seen better days.

Linda Speir recreates her role as Mortimer's eccentric Aunt Abby for ACT 1, taking on the same role she played at Chaffin's Barn last year, and she's joined by Debbie Kraski as the equally daft Aunt Martha. As the two sisters, who believe themselves benevolent as they serve arsenic-laced elderberry wine to lonely old gentlemen in the parlor of their Brooklyn home, both women give outstanding performances, yet honestly each actress appears far too young and vibrant to play the roles created on Broadway and on celluloid by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair. The capable actresses they are, Speir and Kraski are obviously having fun onstage as the generous, kind and murderous Brewster women - and they are winningly engaging in certain moments - but their interpretations of the characters seem perhaps too contemporary for the play's gentle humor to play out as Kesselring intended.

Director Daniel DeVault does little to heighten the script's suspense or to create tension (which should be readily apparent in any show in which a character is a double for Boris Karloff - who created the role, tongue firmly in cheek, on Broadway - though perhaps no one bothered to do research on who he was!) or to create a sense of screwball comedy to leaven the onstage hijinks, which in retrospect were neither high nor jinks.

Instead, Speir and Kraski are saddled with the responsibility of carrying a show that seems heavy-handed and plodding. They deserve better, both in terms of direction, support and production concept.

Eric Butler does a fine job as Mortimer, as arch a blunderbuss as any theater critic could possibly be (and we feel particularly qualified to make that judgment after 30-some years in the business of criticizing the show) and he looks every inch the 1940s matinee idol. Ethan Treutle gives a generally spot-on performance as Mortimer's brother Teddy, who fancies himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, charging up the stairs as if they were San Juan Hill amid a flurry of Spanish-American War recollections. And Bob Fish very nearly steals the show as Dr. Einstein, the menacingly Germanic plastic surgeon pal who's on the lam with the third Brewster brother Jonathan (Drew Dunlop, who looks nothing like Boris Karloff, to be certain), a sociopathic criminal whose tally of victims matches his aunts at 12 each, despite his best efforts to claim a tie-breaking 13th who died of natural causes.

Unfortunately, insofar as this season-opening production is concerned, we can't gin up much enthusiasm for any of the other performances, which seem underdeveloped and delivered by rote, lacking any subtlety or thoughtfulness. The lines are delivered with little inflection or commitment and so the show falls flat.

Further, there's an appalling lack of attention to detail throughout the show and a sheer lack of imagination - DeVault is credited for "costume design" and shows little, if any, understanding of how to create a "period" atmosphere through the characters' clothing (a police officer, for example, wears a white undershirt topped by an unbuttoned shirt; Aunt Martha's "high collar" isn't; Mortimer's suit is ill-fitting and his burgundy velvet fedora looks like something Toni Tenille would have sported in the 1970s; and characters come and go from the Brewsters' Brooklyn home in October without outerwear) or music from the 1940s, which would have helped set the scene evocatively. Actually, there was music played to underscore some scenes, but the volume level was so low in the theater that it seemed more a hindrance to the play's action than actual underscoring.

• Arsenic and Old Lace. By Joseph Kesselring. Directed by Daniel DeVault. Presented by ACT 1 at Darkhorse Theatre, through October 22. For details, go to www.act1online.com. Running time: 2 and one-half hours (with two 10-minute intermissions).

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