Renaissance Players present ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ May 9-18

Release Date: 4/15/2003. Expired: 5/18/2003

Mortimer Brewster’s life is turned upside down when he discovers a few family secrets, threatening his career as a theatre reviewer and his upcoming marriage to a preacher’s beautiful daughter. Throw in one brother who is a fugitive and another who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt and the laughs are non-stop when the Renaissance Players present the classic comedy Arsenic and Old Lace in the Performance Hall of The Renaissance Center May 9-18.

Arsenic and Old Lace will be presented at 7 p.m. May 9-10 and 16-17 and 2 p.m. May 11 and 18. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children under 13.

Written by Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace enjoyed a four-year run on Broadway (1941-44) before becoming a hugely popular movie directed by Frank Capra. The 1944 film starred Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster while his aunts Abby and Martha were played by Josephine Hull and Jean Adair, who had created the roles in the stage version as well. The play featured Boris Karloff as the murderous older brother Jonathan, but that role was turned over to Raymond Massey for the film when the play’s producers would not release Karloff for the making of the movie.

It has become a classic comedy performed in community theatres and college and high school drama clubs across the country for more than 60 years.

“This play brings it all together: comedy, suspense, mystery, mayhem and a love story as well,” said Kim Cantu, who will be making her directorial debut for the Renaissance Players. “It is just as popular today as it was in 1941 when Capra saw the show and immediately wanted to make a movie out of it.”

After secretly getting married, Mortimer discovers that his matronly aunts have a bad habit of poisoning lonely old gentlemen with their homemade elderberry wine, then having his brother Teddy bury them in the cellar, which he believes is the Panama Canal. The situation grows worse when older brother Jonathan returns home looking for a safe place to hide from the police and brings with him a plastic surgeon who botched an operation on Jonathan and left him looking like Karloff, the master of movie monsters and madmen.

The action becomes frantic as Mortimer tries to protect his aunts and Teddy and shift the blame for the bodies in the cellar to Jonathan, all the while fearing he will fall victim to the insanity that “practically gallops” in his family.

“Arsenic and Old Lace has been making people laugh for over 60 years and our production will carry on not only the play’s great tradition but also The Renaissance Center’s new tradition of producing high quality community theatre,” said Kim Leavitt, director of Theatre Education and Outreach and managing director of the Renaissance Players.

For more information on Arsenic and Old Lace at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets for a performance, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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