Measure for Measure and Arsenic and Old Lace were playing in repertory (both plays playing at the same time with the same actors). So, last weekend, on Saturday, Mer and I headed back up to Cleveland to see Arsenic. We knew the travel time better, so we did not have the hour wait until curtain time this time.

The staging for Arsenic was impressive. The curtain rose on the exterior of the Brewster house, and the whole house rotated at the start of the play so you could see the interior of the house, which included a full staircase. The entire play then took place inside the Brewster house, and the house was rotated at the very end of the play so the older Brewster ladies could motion for the audience to come into the house.

Arsenic is a wonderfully funny play. It is a play that is humorous no matter who plays it, as long as they are even just okay actors. The actors in the Great Lakes Theater company are exceptional, so they enhanced the play with great acting, and even added many sight gags to support the play. Mortimer (the lead) was played by the same actor that had played Angelo (the bad deputy) in Measure for Measure. One of the great things about repertory theater is getting to see actors do widely different roles back-to-back. Mortimer is a very very funny role, with a ton of energy required to play him well. It is about as different from Angelo as you can get. As good as the actor’s Angelo was, his Mortimer was brilliant. He played the straight man to the entire farce perfectly. He was stunningly active, being all over the stage all the time as he tried to keep his aunts from doing anything else.

Some of the wonderful sight gags they added to the play included:
– “Teddy” was bringing a body down to the cellar to bury the body in “Panama.” He decided it was easier to let gravity do the work, so he dropped the body down the (hidden to the audience) cellar stairs. We got to see Teddy’s head bounce up and down as he watched the body bounce down the stairs.
– One of the aunts bent over to pick up a throw pillow, and had a very hard (and funny) time getting back up. This was away from the main dialog, which was across the stage. It was still funny enough to have the audience laughing, even though the attention was supposed to be many feet away.
– Mortimer staggered all over the stage in shock when he discovered that the body in the window seat was not the same body that had been there a few hours ago. The shock was way over the top, which fit the play perfectly.
– Mortimer staggered all over the stage because his limbs had fallen asleep after he had been tied to a chair for several hours.
– The mean brother, Jonathan, has had his face altered, and now it looks like the guy that played Frankenstein. At one point, his companion lights a match, and Jonathan grunts and waves his arms at the flame – that was great.

The play had me laughing from beginning to end. If you have never seen the play, you can get the excellent movie from 1944 staring Cary Grant, and you should go get it now!