Well-worn ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ bright, funny again

The Brewster sisters, Martha (Mary Alice Burback) and Abby (Andee Gibbs), add a deadly kick to their elderberry wine in "Arsenic and Old Lace," now in production at Spring Mountain Ranch State park. (Courtesy)

“Arsenic and Old Lace,” by Joseph Kesselring, is an old milquetoast comedy that was a community theater staple for years. What seemed risque in 1941 is so mild by today’s standards, you would expect it to have been abandoned, even by high school theaters.

But this Super Summer Theatre season closer at Spring Mountain Ranch, presented by United Production Works under the adroit direction of Troy Heard, is anything but stale. It became bright, witty and funny again.

It’s a farcical, black comedy, and the action takes place in the Brewster family home in Brooklyn, N.Y. It’s a large cast, typical for the ’40s time period, yet Jefferry Weber’s wonderful period set never feels crowded. It’s properly dressed with all sorts of tchotchkes and details you would expect to find in a house inhabited by two elderly spinsters.

Jeff Tribbitt’s Teddy, who thinks he’s President Theodore Roosevelt, opens the show with a flourish. His entrances and exits convey the necessary comedic strokes of one who’s more than a bit off his rocker. Rushing up the stairs and shouting “Charge!” he brings the well-known, comfortable caricature of the real man to life.

The two spinsters, Abby and Martha, who have a habit of putting arsenic into the wine of lonely old men, are played to perfection by Andee Gibbs and Mary Alice Burback. With inflection, mannerisms and hand-over-mouth snickering they come across as sweet as Aunt Bea. We are taken in as thoroughly as the police by their exuded innocence, and we find ourselves rooting for the two sweet women, even if they are guilty as sin.

Their nephew, Mortimer, is played by Cory Benway with a broadness that borders on slapstick. You may think it wouldn’t work, but it does, to wonderful effect. With his gestures, pratfalls and vocal acuity, he brings an animation to the character that increases the fun, and we eagerly await his scenes.

Alex Pink plays the nasty, murderous brother, Jonathan. His broad-shouldered stature and deep booming voice are enough to scare the pantaloons off anyone, and he uses both extremely well. The real fun comes when he decides to compete with the two old ladies’ body count. His determination to win shows not only in movement but in the interpretation of dialogue.

Joe Hynes as Dr. Einstein (no, not that one) plays his role based on a comic Igor, and it adds delightful fun to being Jonathan’s accomplice. The broadness comes off almost as a counterpart to Mortimer and works well. It may have been an acting choice, but the way he portrays a bum leg is in constant flux and distracts from his overall performance.

Other roles are adequately handled, but it’s a tad distracting for dialects to span from upper New England to New Jersey. A bit overstated at times, we can forgive the cliche of the Irish brogue Joe Pridemore uses for Officer O’Hara; it would’ve seemed odd without it. The issue when an actor chooses to adopt an accent is maintaining it, and there was some slippage.

This play may be old, but this director and cast pulled it off without any detectable moldiness anywhere.