Players Centre stages classic comedy ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’

A few decades ago, “Arsenic and Old Lace” was one of the most often-produced plays in the country, popular with high school drama clubs and amateur groups.

It’s fallen out of favor, perhaps because the ubiquity of bad productions hurt the play’s reputation.

But it’s a very funny play that deserves to be seen, and the Players Centre for Performing Arts in Sarasota is giving us that chance.

The comedy by Joseph Kesselring (whom you’ve probably never heard of outside of the context of this play) is both a farce and a black comedy. It revolves around Mortimer Brewster, a relatively normal theater critic, and his anything-but-normal family.

Mortimer’s brother believes that he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs the Panama Canal in the basement of the family home. His two outwardly prim aunts poison a succession of gentleman callers and bury them in Teddy’s basement ditches. There’s also another brother — a murderer who has had plastic surgery to conceal his identity, but has ended up looking exactly like Boris Karloff.

People have tried to interpret “Arsenic and Old Lace” (which was turned into a memorable movie directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant) as a commentary on American upper-crust hypocrisy. Maybe, but mostly it’s just one of the funniest plays in the canon of 20th century American theater.

Details: Through Aug. 20, the Players Centre for Performing Arts, 838 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $18; $12 students age 24 and younger with ID. 941-365-2494, theplayers.org.

This story was originally published August 16, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Players Centre stages classic comedy ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’."