Arsenic and Old Lace

The Bunbury Players are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and what better play for them to choose than Arsenic and Old Lace, the one with which they started in 1973.  

The play, set in 1941, is a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centres on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighbourhood for their numerous acts of charity. Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells "charge" as he bounds up the stairs. Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theatre critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution. Kesselring’s adroit mixture of comedy and mayhem, satirises the charitable impulse as he pokes fun at the conventions of the theatre.

The Jubilee Centre at Mildenhall is a difficult venue to perform in I would think.  The stage is extremely wide but very shallow and the lighting facilities appear to be inadequate leaving dark patches along the front of the stage.  That said however, the setting worked well and the cast made full use of all areas of the stage.

Things got off to a good start with Linda Spencer (Abby Brewster) and Glen Hussein (The Rev Dr Harper) comfortably taking tea blissfully oblivious to the strange antics of Abby’s nephew Teddy played by Laura Fulcher.  Miss Fletcher did a very strong and confident job in this male role, but not sure about the drawn on moustache!  Mandy Morrish as Martha Brewster I thought was excellent and together with Miss Spencer they made a strong and very believable duo.  Nutty as fruitcakes of course!  Joanna Turvey as Mortimer Brewster’s young lady Elaine Harper I thought did a good job.  This is a difficult on-and-off role but it was handled well.  Darren Mather as nephew number two Mortimer Brewster, was like a latter-day James Stewart frenetically trying to keep things together whilst romancing (or not) his young lady.  This was a bravura performance.  Darren Hitchings as the third nephew, an escapee from a mental institution in the process of undergoing a facial reconstruction also gave a good, strong performance.  Peter Rouse as Dr Einstein was, unfortunately, drastically overcome by first night nerves giving rise to several total memory blanks which was a great shame.  

In the smaller roles of the police officers were Martin Corker (Brophy), Jackie Jackson (Klein), Philippa Miller (O’Hara) and Stephen Gunn (Lt Rooney).  All four gave good accounts of themselves and Miss Miller must be commended on her ‘boring everyone with plot of the play she was writing’ scene.  Glen Hussein took on three roles (Harper, Gibbs and Witherspoon) each one very different and each extremely well done.  I must also commend those actors using American accents all of which were well maintained.

There were one or two things on the debit side I am afraid.  I understand that, unfortunately, the show lost it’s director two weeks beforehand and I have to say this showed as it lacked much in pace.  I am sure things would have been a lot tighter had this not happened.  Also, the dead body in the window box really does need to be either a lightweight person or a good believable dummy.  The lighting on the front of the stage is obviously a problem leaving a ‘dead spot’. Given the facilities it was probably unavoidable as the rest of the lighting design by Bobby Mather was fine.  I particularly liked the lighting state with the candles on the table when the main light was off.  

Arsenic and Old Lace is a great play and a good choice for "the Bunburys" in their 40th anniversary year. 

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