Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring (1941)

TW: Asian Slurs

 

SYNOPSIS

            All is fine when Mortimer looks over his kindly and loving aunts’ paperwork to have Teddy, his brother that believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, committed after they pass until Mortimer finds a dead body and fears that his brother has become violent. It’s actually a victim of his aunts’ kindness. The sisters agree that if someone is old and lonely they’ll find happiness once they’ve passed on and consider it a charity to help them along. Mortimer is the only one that finds their ideology disturbing, but must leave to review the play despite desperately trying to get out of it to help hide his aunts’ crimes. While he’s away, Jonathan, the dangerous third brother returns after a 20-year absence with his friend, Dr. Einstein, that performs face changing surgeries for him. Jonathan weasels his aunts into letting him stay the night despite their fears and finds the “Panama Canal” that Teddy has been digging in the basement that’s perfectly for dumping the body of his murder victim. Hilarity and suspense ensue as Mortimer tries to protect his aunts and kick Jonathan out while Jonathan tries to hide his own victim and gain access to use his grandfather’s old lab as an illegal clinic, all the while neither party realizes that the other has committed murder. Eventually of course they discover what the other is trying to do, all while the aunts’ cop friend is trying desperately to tell Mortimer about the play he’s writing. More officers arrive from a noise complaint when Teddy blows his bugle at an ungodly hour and Jonathan attacks them after assuming they’ve come for him. The Lieutenant forces the family to have Teddy committed that day and the aunts happily join him leaving the house and all the buried bodies in Mortimer’s possession and ending the Brewster line.

 

CHARACTERS

No ethnicities are mentioned in the text though Teddy’s Asian’s slurs and the likeness to real people should be considered

Abby Brewster – Late 60s, Plump Little Darling

Rev. Dr. Harper – Middle Aged

Teddy - 40s

Officer Brody – Adult

Officer Klein – Adult

Martha Brewster – Elderly

Elaine Harper – 20s, Attractive, Looks Surprisingly Smart for Minister’s Daughter

Mortimer – Adult

Mr. Gibbs – Older Man

Jonathan – Adult, Sinister, Resemblance to Boris Karloff

Dr. Herman Einstein – Middle Aged, Ratty Appearance, Alcoholic Stupor, German with Accent

Officer O’Hara – Adult

Lt. Rooney – Adult, Tough, Driving, Dominating

Mr. Witherspoon – Elderly, Tight-lipped, Disciplinarian

 

POTENTIAL MONOLOGUES

            The explanation of the man that inspired the sisters’ killing spree is treated as dialogue, but could be a comedically morbid monologue if Abby and Martha’s lines are combined.

            Mortimer’s best potential monologue is when he goes on about how idiotic characters in plays are all the while he’s about to get caught the same way. It’s still a bit iffy since it involves sitting and the hilarity is improved with another actor getting the jump on him. The moment is definitely more compelling as scene work, but worth considering as a monologue.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            I have to admit that this play was hilarious despite touches of dated humor. I have no idea what the technical terms would be for Teddy’s delusions or the sisters’ dismissal of murder as a kindness, but Jonathan just comes across as a psychopath with anger issues and a touch of a God complex. Still he seems like a fun character to bring to life on stage.

            There’s a quote I’d like to share from Wikipedia’s article about the play and film from August 17, 2021 - “The play was written by Joseph Kesselring, son of German immigrants and a former professor at Bethel College, a pacifist Mennonite college. It was written in the antiwar atmosphere of the late 1930s. Capra scholar, Matthew C. Gunter, argues that the deep theme of both the play and film is America's difficulty in coming to grips with both the positive and negative consequences of the liberty it professes to uphold, and which the Brewsters demand. Although their house is the nicest in the street, there are 12 bodies in the basement. That inconsistency is a metaphor for America's struggle to reconcile the violence of much of its past with the pervasive myths about its role as a beacon of freedom.”

            I would love to see this play performed today, preferably with the few Asian slurs used edited out. There are some plot points that are well foreshadowed like how Mortimer mentions a third brother that he doesn’t like about 10 or 15 minutes in and lo and behold that very brother makes a dreadful appearance. At the same time the play makes fun out of subverting Chekov’s gun. We learn about the aunts’ poison as they’re about to have a new gentleman drink, but he’s stopped when Mortimer pours himself a glass and quickly rushed out of the house. Jonathan and Einstein also nearly drink the poison before being interrupted, twice I believe. Then finally the play ends with the aunts offering a poisoned drink to the director of the sanitorium they’re going to just as the curtain drops. It’s probably my favorite running gag in the show and makes me want to try a non-poisoned version of elderberry wine myself.

            The way that Teddy is incorporated into the world of the play also makes me happy. No one hides that his antics can be tedious, but nonetheless everyone respects that they’re part of who Teddy is and indulge the harmless beliefs that make him feel safe. Multiple times Mortimer considers and actually tries to pin the murders on Teddy after realizing his innocence, but in the end, Jonathan is arrested without any of the murders being discovers and Teddy goes to the sanitorium an innocent man.