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‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ Playhouse stages classic comedy
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
There was never any doubt as to who would direct the Youngstown Playhouse’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
David El’Hatton has had a respect and affinity for the old-school comedy ever since he was in grade school. He also had a role in a 2001 Playhouse production of the play.
“There was no other director than David [considered] because of his reverence for the play,” said Playhouse Director Bernie Appugliese.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a classic farce — perhaps the classic farce — that revolves around Abby and Martha Brewster, a pair of old spinster sisters with a proper predilection for murder.
It was written by Joseph Kesselring and premiered on Broadway in 1939 where it played 1,444 performances. It then moved to London for a 1,337-performance run before being made into a hit 1946 movie starring Cary Grant.
El’Hatton describes the play as “light and frothy and silly” but also “the greatest-written American comedy. Everything that came after it [in its genre] is an imitation.”
He has assembled an outstanding veteran cast for the production, which opens Friday and runs for two weekends.
Terri Wilkes and Dana Dunnavant play the Brewster sisters. John Cox is their frantically flummoxed nephew Mortimer Brewster, who gets wise to his aunts’ game and then gets just as batty.
“I told John Cox, ‘This is the part you were born to play,’” said El’Hatton.
The cast also includes Tom O’Donnell, David Jendre, Joseph Scarvell, Frank Martin, Ezekiel Ellis, Jim Hain, Victoria Lubonovich, Charles Simon, Daniel Lancy, Vijay Welch-Young and Dennis Villa.
Becca Kopchak and Dorene White serve as stage managers, and Liz Nalepa is the costume designer.
El’Hatton has always wanted to direct the play.
He said he loves the challenge of a physical comedy that relies so much on timing. “It’s the hardest thing to do, and it isn’t funny if it doesn’t land just right,” he said.
The play is set in 1930s Brooklyn, and the Playhouse production will stay true to the original version even though it has some dated lines.
“These are cartoon characters, delivering dialog in 1940s theater style,” said El’Hatton. “We will act the way they acted then.”
The set is an interior of the Brewster sisters’ Victorian home, with a many-paned window framing a living room of period furniture. The Brewster sisters use the home to put lonely old men out of their misery, poisoning them and burying them on the premises.
Multiple doors and a staircase will get a workout in the slapstick-style play, with characters coming and going at madcap pace.