By Monique Danziger
In Joseph Kesselring’s 1939 classic, Arsenic and Old Lace, now playing at the Cottage Theatre in Cottage Grove, the Brewster sisters bring new meaning to the phrase “to kill with kindness.”
Their calm and peaceful home is a place of amiable conversation and silver tea services. They regularly attend church, delight in bringing beef broth to the sick, and dote upon their nephew Mortimer. They rent their spare rooms to down-on-their-luck-lodgers to whom they serve home-cooked meals, heartfelt conversation — and a poison glass of their homemade elderberry wine.
Abby and Martha Brewster, played by Nikki Pagniano and Marcee Shriver Long, are committed to their task of helping lonely old men find (eternal) peace and cannot understand what all the fuss is about when Mortimer stumbles upon their little secret early in the first act. The juxtaposition between the delightfully excitable Mortimer (played with perfect high-strung energy by Kory Weimer) and Pagniano and Long as his clucking, cooing aunts is comedic gold.
The first act establishes the basics: the aunts are quirky and endearing, Mortimer is a dyspeptic theatre critic, he has a budding romance with the girl next door, and there is a fresh corpse in the window seat. Much like the Brewster sisters’ cocktail of elderberry wine with a teaspoon of arsenic in it, Kesselring delights in muddling the quaint with the macabre.
Woven into the tumult is Mortimer’s brother Teddy, played with madcap zeal by Dale Flynn, and Mortimer’s fiancée Elaine Harper (a delightfully confounded Ashlee Winkler). Teddy is convinced he is Teddy Roosevelt, and busies himself with digging the Panama Canal, which is in the basement. Elaine just tries to keep her cool as her date night to the theater descends into chaos.
Things get decidedly more sinister when Mortimer and Teddy’s brother Jonathan “Johnny” Brewster shows up. Accompanied by his henchman, the boozy plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein, Johnny is looking for a place to stash a corpse and lay low. Earl Ruttencutter plays Johnny with a thuggish intensity while Dylan Skye Kennedy channels the great Peter Lorre (who played Dr. Einstein in the 1944 movie adaptation) to serve up the simpering Dr. Einstein.
The cast does a superb job navigating Kesselring’s combination of comedic writing and slapstick. There is fast-paced dialogue and the occasional lugging of a body, which the entire cast throw themselves into with energy and enthusiasm. Special commendation goes to Joshua Sayre, whose Officer O’Hara nearly steals the third act with his hilarious play-within-a-play schtick.
Director Keith Kessler deserves praise also, for orchestrating three acts that build to a satisfying denouement. There is murder, mayhem, young lovers, old foes and lots of laughs throughout the show, all of which feels well-paced. Set designer Tony Rust and his crew also deserve kudos for constructing the Brewster sisters’ elegantly appointed living and dining rooms — complete with the infamous body-sized window seat.
There is much to enjoy in the Cottage Theatre’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Despite its age, the material has held up well. People today still underestimate sweet old ladies, and families will always drive each other crazy. And while it’s been many years since he was in office, a joke about President William Howard Taft remains a crowd pleaser.
The show has three acts with a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. It’s onstage at the Cottage Theatre through February 16.
Arsenic and Old Lace
When: Evenings at 8 p.m. on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, Feb. 6-8, 13-15, and matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 and 16
Where: Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove (east of the I-5 freeway)
Tickets: $25 for adults, $15 for youths age 18 years and younger, available by telephone at 541-942-8001, online at cottagetheatre.org, or in person at the box office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and starting one hour before performances
