- Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
"Arsenic and Old Lace" is a play by American
playwright Joseph Kesselring , written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starringCary Grant and directed byFrank Capra . The play was directed byBretaigne Windust , and opened on10 January 1941 . On25 September 1943 , the play moved to theHudson Theater . It closed there on17 June 1944 having played 1,444 performances. Of the twelve plays written by Kesselring, "Arsenic and Old Lace" is the only one to be successful.Cast
The opening night
cast consisted of:*
Jean Adair (Martha Brewster)
* John Alexander (Teddy Brewster)
* Wyrley Birch (The Rev. Dr. Harper)
* Helen Brooks (Elaine Harper)
* Bruce Gordon (Officer Klein)
* Henry Herbert (Mr. Gibbs)
*Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster)
* Allyn Joslyn (Mortimer Brewster)
*Boris Karloff (Jonathan Brewster)
* William Parke (Mr. Witherspoon)
* John Quigg (Officer Brophy)
* Anthony Ross (Officer O'Hara)
* Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein)
*Victor Sutherland (Lieutenant Rooney)When Kesselring taught at Bethel College in North Newton,
Kansas , he lived in aboarding house called the Goerz House, and many of the features of its living room are reflected in the Brewster sisters'living room , where the action of the play is set. The Goerz House is now the home of thecollege president .The 'murderous old lady' plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house in Windsor, Connecticut, where an older woman took in boarders and allegedly poisoned them for their pensions. Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy drama, but a friend, reading the half-finished play, convinced him it would be much more effective as a comedy.
In 1966,
Sybil Thorndike ,Athene Seyler andRichard Briers appeared in the play in London. The play is still widely performed and has been translated into many languages, including a Russian film. A revival of the play ran fromJune 26 ,1986 toJanuary 3 ,1987 at the46th Street Theatre in New York.Plot
The play is a farcical
black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a theatre-hating dramacritic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police inBrooklyn , New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes twospinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-madeelderberry wine laced witharsenic ,strychnine , and "just a pinch" ofcyanide ; a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for thePanama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims); and a murderous brother who has receivedplastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity and now looks like horror-film actorBoris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played by Karloff). The film adaptation follows the same basic plot, with a few minor changes. It is customary, after the cast takes severalcurtain call s, for the final one to finish with the "murder victims" (often well-known local personalities) entering from the basement and joining the cast for the final bow.External links
* [http://www.bethelks.edu/map/goerz.php Information on the Goerz House]
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