Synopsis
Arsenic and Old Lace - DPS ACTING EDITION
$13
Published by Dramatists Play Service
11 Male 3 Female
This farcical black comedy revolves around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves
His family includes his two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide
And a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims)
And another murderous brother who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr Einstein to conceal his identity and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff!
"It is an inspired and delightful comic concoction, which combines the cosy charm and ingenious plotting of an Agatha Christie whodunit with a much sharper and more knowing satirical perspective" ~ The Guardian
M11,F3 (of the 11 men, some are minor bit parts and can be doubled)
This is the American edition, for the UK edition, click here