FROM THE ARCHIVES: Arsenic and Old Lace: delicious entertainment
Issue date: 5/9/05 Section: A & E
Friday, March 28, 1980
By Sandra Gary
Elderberry wine: a symbol of sweetness, aged to rottenness, but still seems innocent - especially in the Ventura Collegiate Players production of Joseph Kesselring's "Arsenic and Old Lace" in the theater.
"We've had the largest crowd we've had in years for a nonmusical production." Eddy Barron, director, said noting that people had to be turned away. "It went exceptionally well, and we're really proud of it."
The story was one of unsolved mystery. Blended with the amusing antics of two senile murderesses, Abby and Martha Brewster, and their insane nephew Teddy, who thought he was President Teddy Roosevelt, the play was tasty entertainment laced with a bitter theme.
Asking in the play if it is sinful to do wrong with good intentions, Kesselring left the answer open to the discretion of the audience in showing that right and wrong are relative to the character's viewpoint. He also showed that the results of do-gooders can turn out ironically hurtful and wrong. Finally, bliss is with the simple, Kesselring pointed out.
In the three-act play, the players carried out Kesselring's ideas to the detail. The stage setting was the elaborate living room of a two-story, early American home in Brooklyn. Complete with a staircase and balcony, large framed paintings and elegant china for the rich wood table, Reed Hair, stage manager, created a warm, homey atmosphere. The only noticeable problem was with the flimsiness of the doors.
The lead roles of Abby and Martha Brewster, played by Katie Korf and Marlene Reinhart, respectively, were excellent. Dressed in 18th century high-collar lace gowns, the pair portrayed the ever-bustling halo-wearing Brewster sisters. The Brewster sisters were the two with good Christian intentions. Yet, like the wine, they too were rotten. The sisters saw poisoning lonely old gentlemen as right, charitable and merciful.
By the second act, as the play became more involved, the audience was introduced to Jonathan Brewster, the black sheep of the family, and Dr. Einstein, his accomplice. The pair were storybook wicked and the murderers of twelve. Jonathan, portrayed by Diamund Dillon, had the remade face of Boris Karloff, given to him by Einstein, a round man with a thick German accent. Gordan Guerrasio, as Einstein, handled his German accent convincingly. The deadly duo had the body of their last victim with them and hid it in the Brewster sisters' cellar, with the other graves. The body they dragged on the dimly lit stage looked real; a nice special effect. Unlike the Brewster sisters, these two knew the evil they were doing and liked it.
Mortimer Brewster, played by Joel Miller, stood on middleground. He knew the deeds of both parties of killers, and chose to protect the aunts whom he loved. Miller's overreactions and constant movement on stage hurt his otherwise convincing performance of a prissy movie critic.
As the plot unraveled, Teddy, portrayed by Ron Burling, kept the audience in stitches. His periodic blast on a bugle and he charged up San Juan Hill (the staircase) in khaki shorts, made him a favorite character of the audience. Burling's ability to keep and straight face during a time of intense humor is incredible.
In the last scene, Abby and Martha poison their last lonely gentleman, before moving to Happy Dale Sanitarium.
The audience was left with a smile and the haunting question of intentions.
By Sandra Gary
Elderberry wine: a symbol of sweetness, aged to rottenness, but still seems innocent - especially in the Ventura Collegiate Players production of Joseph Kesselring's "Arsenic and Old Lace" in the theater.
"We've had the largest crowd we've had in years for a nonmusical production." Eddy Barron, director, said noting that people had to be turned away. "It went exceptionally well, and we're really proud of it."
The story was one of unsolved mystery. Blended with the amusing antics of two senile murderesses, Abby and Martha Brewster, and their insane nephew Teddy, who thought he was President Teddy Roosevelt, the play was tasty entertainment laced with a bitter theme.
Asking in the play if it is sinful to do wrong with good intentions, Kesselring left the answer open to the discretion of the audience in showing that right and wrong are relative to the character's viewpoint. He also showed that the results of do-gooders can turn out ironically hurtful and wrong. Finally, bliss is with the simple, Kesselring pointed out.
In the three-act play, the players carried out Kesselring's ideas to the detail. The stage setting was the elaborate living room of a two-story, early American home in Brooklyn. Complete with a staircase and balcony, large framed paintings and elegant china for the rich wood table, Reed Hair, stage manager, created a warm, homey atmosphere. The only noticeable problem was with the flimsiness of the doors.
The lead roles of Abby and Martha Brewster, played by Katie Korf and Marlene Reinhart, respectively, were excellent. Dressed in 18th century high-collar lace gowns, the pair portrayed the ever-bustling halo-wearing Brewster sisters. The Brewster sisters were the two with good Christian intentions. Yet, like the wine, they too were rotten. The sisters saw poisoning lonely old gentlemen as right, charitable and merciful.
By the second act, as the play became more involved, the audience was introduced to Jonathan Brewster, the black sheep of the family, and Dr. Einstein, his accomplice. The pair were storybook wicked and the murderers of twelve. Jonathan, portrayed by Diamund Dillon, had the remade face of Boris Karloff, given to him by Einstein, a round man with a thick German accent. Gordan Guerrasio, as Einstein, handled his German accent convincingly. The deadly duo had the body of their last victim with them and hid it in the Brewster sisters' cellar, with the other graves. The body they dragged on the dimly lit stage looked real; a nice special effect. Unlike the Brewster sisters, these two knew the evil they were doing and liked it.
Mortimer Brewster, played by Joel Miller, stood on middleground. He knew the deeds of both parties of killers, and chose to protect the aunts whom he loved. Miller's overreactions and constant movement on stage hurt his otherwise convincing performance of a prissy movie critic.
As the plot unraveled, Teddy, portrayed by Ron Burling, kept the audience in stitches. His periodic blast on a bugle and he charged up San Juan Hill (the staircase) in khaki shorts, made him a favorite character of the audience. Burling's ability to keep and straight face during a time of intense humor is incredible.
In the last scene, Abby and Martha poison their last lonely gentleman, before moving to Happy Dale Sanitarium.
The audience was left with a smile and the haunting question of intentions.