The cast of Arsenic and Old Lace, with (front row from l) designer Jim Duncan, director Mavourneen Varcoe-Ryan, and stage manager Jessica Clement.

The cast of Arsenic and Old Lace, with (front row from l) designer Jim Duncan, director Mavourneen Varcoe-Ryan, and stage manager Jessica Clement.

‘Arsenic’ will leave you laughing

A reader writes to praise the WRAPS production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace'

Dear Editor,

Every good comedy has an undercurrent of seriousness, and that’s certainly true of Arsenic and Old Lace, with its sort of reminder that we are all a little different—sometimes a lot different—from what we seem to be, like just about every single character in this play.

But in Arsenic and Old Lace, laughter trumps (trumps? oh no, forget I ever said the word); I mean the play is as remote from anything ponder…ous as white is from black. Everything and everyone in the play is lots of fun, from Roosevelt to the bumbling cops, to the love-struck Mortimer and his Boris Karloff-seeming sibling, to—and certainly not least—the fiendishly angelic Brewster aunts.

Go out and see the play if you haven’t already done so. You’ll come out laughing. Guaranteed!

Ermes Culos

Ashcroft

 

Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal