Arsenic and Old Lace




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  • 2014-03-22 23:29:47
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For a hilarious play, take a full spoon of dark humor, then add half a teaspoon full of  lunatic characters and then just a pinch of twists and murders.This semester’s theatre season starts promisingly with the premiere of the dark comedy “Arsenic and Old lace” on Wednesday, March 19. [caption id="attachment_19776" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="AUBG Prospective Students, photograph by Darya Yanitskaya"][/caption] The plot revolves around the elderly Brewster sisters Abbey and Martha, who live with their delusional nephew in Brooklyn, after his brothers Mortimer and Jonathan moved out of the family home. The sweet and caring ladies developed a “hobby” –killing lonely ,old  gentlemen with homemade Elderberry wine that is laced with a blend of arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide. Of course,the two women don’t find anything disturbing about their practice ;on the contrary, they believe that they provide their victims with certain kindness. This conviction brings out a comic lightness in the dark situation. The plot grows more interesting when while visiting the family, Mortimer discovers one of the murdered victims. The development becomes even more complicated when Jonathan Brewster - also a maniac criminal, returns home with his alcoholic plastic surgeon, who gave him a new scary looking face resembling that of Boris Karloff’. Jonathan and his accomplice did not, however, come with empty hands. Adding to the absurd situation is the other nephew -Teddy, who believes he is President Theodore Roosevelt  and tries to dig the Panama Canal in the basement. As if it’s not enough trouble for poor Mortimer, but he has to deal with his new fiancée and the police, while keeping his family from murdering someone.  [caption id="attachment_19774" align="alignright" width="300" caption="AUBG Prospective Students, photograph by Darya Yanitskaya"][/caption]   Nikita Shcherbak  and Alex Otman brought a charming tinge to Abby and Martha Brewster's roles by successfully portraying the characters’naïveté and innocence, combined with their serial killer tendencies. This was essential to the play as it was a central source of comic situations. The romantic couple, Mortimer Brewster and Elaine Harper, were played by Nikola Mladenovic and Lejla Dizdarevic. Mladenovic was able to convey Mortimer’s  nervous energy that builds the character’s hilarious image, especially his panic when discovering multiple dead bodies throughout the play. Dizdarevic’s Elaine was nicely presented with all her superficiality.   [caption id="attachment_19775" align="alignleft" width="215" caption="AUBG Prospective Students, photograph by Darya Yanitskaya"][/caption] Perhaps the most sinister characters in the play were  Jonathan Brewster and  Dr. Einstein played by MilosVukicevic  and Igor Vasilachi. The alcoholic doctor sheds some positive light in this dark duo with his particular manner of speaking and subversive behavior, contrasting with the psychopath nephew’s facial expression. The action was interrupted from time to time by Teddy’s (Vlad Muntean) blasting appearances while yelling "charge" and then racing up the stairs. The play, written by Joseph Kesselring in 1939, is  directed by Valentina Stevanovic, especially for the work's premiere in AUBG .Despite being quite long , the play was enjoyable and entertaining.   *All images used in the story are courtesy of Darya Yanitskaya.