“ARSENIC AND OLD LACE”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22991, 7 September 1944, Page 6

“ARSENIC AND OLD LACE”

Comedy Delights Large Audience “Arsenic and Old Lace,” the Joseph Kesselring play presented by the J. C. Williamson Comedy Company before a crowded audience in the Theatre Royal last night, demonstrated with the rising of the curtain that a talented cast had taken the boards and made obvious the reason of the long and successful seasons of the Company in the main centres. With a somewhat macabre background of murder and insanity, the play dealt with the Brewsters, a Brooklyn family with a tendency to homicidal mania. The story deals with two spinsters, who, beneath a charm of manner and in a Victorian atmosphere, are really not responsible for their actions, their failing being to poison innocent inquirers for lodgings. Their attitude is due to their sympathy toward their victims whom they feel should no longer suffer loneliness, but who should find everlasting peace, which they accomplish by offering them poisoned elderberry wine. They are aided by Teddy Brewster, a middleaged brother who imagines that he is the President of the United States, and in his delusion he disposes of the bodies of the “yellow fever” victims in the cellar. The arrival of a nephew, Jonathan Brewster, after an absence of years, complicates the situation as he has been chased by the police all over the world for a series of murders, and he even arrives at the Brewster mansion with a body on his hands, while the spinsters have also to dispose of the latest of their victims. It requires but little imagination to realise that the author provided the actors with plenty of scope in unexpected situations. and the principals and supporting players made the most of them. The success of the play lay largely in the hands of the Brewster sisters Misses Ethel Gabriel and Lilv Moore, who delighted the audience with thenconvincing interpretations. As two survivals of the Victorian age, in a setting typical of those times’, their delightful mannerisms charmed the audience and they demonstrated convincingly that thev had a full appreciation of the situations depicted by the author. Thev were ablv supported by Lloyd Lambie as Jonathan Brewster, who supplied most of the dramatic action. John Tate, as Teddv Brewster, carried out his “presidential" role with aplomb, and he was largely responsible for the humour of the piece. Allan Christie as Mortimer Brewster the nephew, had a difficult task in endeavouring to conceal his aunt's crimes and solving his own problems. The role of his fiancee. Elaine Harper was ably presented by Miss Bettina Welch. The other members of the cast contributed to the high standard of the whole production, the various roles being as follows: Allan Rankin (the Rev. Dr. Harper and later Mr Gibbs) Stephen Chapman (Officer Klein), Les King (Officer Brophy), Sam Stern (Dr. Einstein), John Gray (Officer O’Hara), Frank Bradley (Lieutenant Rooney), James Allan (Mr Witherspoon). The season will conclude tins evening will) the presentation "f mmwiw