ARSENIC & OLD LACE
By Joseph Kesselring
DIRECTOR’S CONCEPT
Herndon High School Theatre Fall Cappies Play – 2025
“Insanity runs in this family – in fact it practically gallops”. This is just one of the great witty lines from Joseph Kesselring’s American classic, Arsenic & Old Lace. The title itself implies the juxtaposition of poison mixed with the doylies you would see in your grandma’s house on the furniture. What could be funnier than a couple of sweet septuagenarians putting old men out of their misery, believing it to be a service to them and their sad lives? This is a dark comedy, full of mishaps, mayhem, and murder, set in an idyllic Brooklyn, New York neighborhood in the 1940’s.
Arsenic & Old Lace opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre in January of 1941, running three years and over 1,000 performances, closing in June of 1944. The film adaptation came out in 1944 starring Carey Grant and directed by the great Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). This was just what Americans needed on the home front during the ravages of World War II, allowing them to laugh and escape for an evening. Eighty years later and audiences are still drawn to the Brewster home and all the wacky characters who come and go through their front door, cellar door, and even the window seat.
Mortimer Brewster has a problem. Well, he has many problems. As a theatre critic, he is responsible for whether the Broadway shows will make it, where his word and pen can decide the fate of the next opening. Meanwhile, at home, he must decide the fate of his aunts after he realizes they have been a murder spree and have twelve bodies buried in their basement. Then there’s his long-lost brother Jonathan, who has escaped from prison and is running from the law. He hides out in his childhood Brewster home to continue his nefarious act with his sidekick, Dr. Einstein. Add in another brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt and buries all the bodies in the basement because he believes they died of the Yellow Fever, and you have a recipe for mad-cap hijinks.
Mortimer wants to marry the girl next door, Elaine, the preacher’s daughter, but fears that she would be marrying into his crazy family, and he doesn’t want to add any more Brewsters to their insane family history. However, she does indeed get tangled up into the dark side of the family when Jonathan traps her to be his next victim. Mortimer must save the damsel in distress in time, send his aunts and Teddy off to a sanitorium before their crimes are discovered, and ensure that Jonathan and Dr. Einstein are caught in the act by New York’s finest. All this happens at a comical pace and leaves our audiences laughing at the absurdity of it all.
I plan to create an opening parody at the top of the show where we see the aunts in their murder spree, killing off several old men in their ritualistic ways of wining, dining, and confining them to their demise, underscored by an upbeat 1940’s soundtrack. Our multilevel set will feature many swinging doors, open windows, antique furniture, and plenty of laced fabric furniture. Our costume team will research the great classic styles of World War II era fashion. Lighting will feature daylight tea parties and late-night shenanigans in the dark, bringing in and hiding bodies. Finally, our comic play would not be complete with the classic “take,” “double take” or “spit take,” that was made famous in this era of plays and movies. Our actors must be ready to take on the physical antics of these over-the-top characters and find their voices, dialects, and mannerisms that are inherent to 1940’s Brooklyn, USA.