A dark farce about love, family and poison will be performed by theater students at the College of DuPage.
“Arsenic and Old Lace,” written by playwright Joseph Kesselring, will be staged at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays April 4-14 at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.
It is directed by assistant theater professor Daniel Millhouse, who says this is a simple show but with a lot of action.
“It’s about these two elderly women who live in Brooklyn. They are Brooklyn’s angels. Everyone loves and adores them. Everyone knows the Brewster sisters,” he said.
“For the events of this play, their nephew Mortimer has just gotten engaged and has come home to tell them about his engagement. While he is there, he discovers a dead body in the window seat.”
Mortimer Brewster, played by Alexander Wisniewski, thinks the killer is his Uncle Teddy. Teddy, meanwhile, thinks he’s President Teddy Roosevelt. Mortimer is shocked to find out that the man in the window seat was murdered by his dear, sweet aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster.
Not only have they killed one person, but they’ve also killed 12 other people by poisoning them with a glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide.
“After that, comedy ensues as he tries to work around this problem and help his aunts,” Millhouse said. “Eventually his other brother shows up, who is a serial killer who has also killed 12 people.”
He cast age-appropriate students, Lynn Borge and Lynette Myers, in the roles of the aunts.
“It’s really kind of exciting because it gives our students the chance to work alongside people with not only theater experience but life experience,” he said.
“When I was reading the show, I realized how so much of the aunts’ perspective was based on lived experience. I thought how much more enriching it would be for our students to have the experience to work with people who have already been in the real world and see how they approach text.”
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a staple of community theater, he said. It was written in 1939 and premiered on Broadway in 1941. A movie directed by Frank Capra starring Cary Grant came out in 1944.
“It’s a show that is so easily accessible because it is about family,” Millhouse said. “We all have those family members in our lives. Not to say they’re as kooky as the Brewster family is, but we all have those relatives that make us (groan.) It’s an accessible story and it’s so kooky and zany – to me it speaks like a Tim Burton-esque family farce.”
He thinks those kooky-yet-relatable characters will help audiences love the show.
“All the characters, even with all their quirks – like the brother who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt – there’s something so endearing and charming that everyone accepts that and they all want what’s best for him,” he said.
“Even Mortimer, when he discovers his aunts are killing people, he’s still trying to protect them. There is something that is so full of love for family that I think people will go, ‘Aww.’ It is that kind of show … (even though) it is about murder. But still there is so much charm and charisma and love that’s involved, that’s why I think people continually go back to the script.”
Although the play was written during World War II, Millhouse tries to speak to a modern audience through his direction, he said.
“I feel like in order to speak to today’s society we really have to engage them,” he said. “Especially with theater, we’re always combating the social media age where people can watch a whole story in 30 seconds on TikTok. With attention spans, I feel we really have to captivate and speak to everyone immediately.”
As there are different generations of actors in his cast, it has been exciting to see how they each interpret the play and put their own modern take on it.
“Ultimately, I lucked out that I had actors of differing backgrounds and ages and races come to audition,” he said.
He thinks it will be a great night to escape.
“Theater is a form of entertainment and this play is so theatrical that it’s just going to take you into a world where you don’t need to lean back in the seat, you’ll be leaning forward wondering what’s going to happen next. It’s a realistic family but the situation is so heightened, it’s just going to transport you into this farcical world where I truly just want people to laugh away any stress, any sorry they might be facing. It’s an evening of celebration. (Even though) it’s about death.”
A pre-show discussion with the director and designers will be at 6:45 p.m. April 4. A post-show discussion with the director, cast and crew on April 12.
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for The Naperville Sun.
‘Arsenic and Old Lace’
When: April 4-14
Where: McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn
Tickets: $14-$16
Information: 630-942-4000; atthemac.org
