Theatre
Arsenic and Old Lace
Manoel Theatre

There is nothing more likely to swell audience attendance than a comedy, and MADC’s choice of classic 1940s farce Arsenic and Old Lace, currently at the Manoel Theatre, was a wise one.

... a play that celebrates the unwholesome aspect of the twee, making very improbable characters funny enough to keep an audience pleasantly entertained

While it was evident from their laughter that the older patrons behind me were enjoying themselves, Joseph Otto Kesselring’s 1939 play seemed to have struck a positive chord even with the younger members of the audience who attended.

They conceded, at the end of the performance, to having found it fun.

I must admit that I did find Kesselring’s references and style rather dated and the plot too convoluted and improbable to suit anything but the farcical.

However, the play didn’t promise to be anything more than just that; so it was up to the cast to make the piece a memor-able experience.

It is very much a play that needs to be carried by the right period styling, and thankfully this worked well – from the hair and wigs by Guy Galea to Martin Azzopardi’s choice of costumes, featuring, of course, a considerable amount of lace.

Joe Galea’s set created the right atmosphere for an aging Victorian house in 1940s Brooklyn – with inhabitants almost as old as the house itself.

The script requires two strong lead comic actresses, and director Josette Ciappara wisely cast Marylu Coppini and Polly March as the two seemingly sweet elderly sisters, Martha and Abby Brewster respectively.

A strong dynamic between the two actresses was visible from the onset, and while they came across as sweet and well-meaning, they gave off a distinctly macabre feeling as two lovable and unlikely murderers.

Their characterisation was part-Norman Bates’ Mother and part-Tweetie’s Granny with just a dash of Julia Child’s culinary zeal.

Both ladies’ effortless interpretations carried the weight of the humour inimitably – with dry wit masked by a saccharine coyness.

Their excuse was that they were doing their victims a kindness by putting them out of their misery as lonely souls with no one to look after them.

Later they get their delusional but harmless nephew Teddy, played by a suitably whacky Colin Fitz, to serve as an unwitting accomplice.

Ms Coppini’s and Ms March’s near-perfect timing was matched very well by Edward Mercieca’s acting of Mortimer Brewster, their unsuspecting nephew and Teddy’s brother.

He also happens to be a rather flippant and reluctant theatre critic … *nudge-nudge-wink-wink* to me, of course.

Indeed, the script’s redemptive feature was a series of not-so-subtly veiled remarks about theatre reviewers which had me chuckling and became more enjoyable in the second act.

Mr Mercieca was in great form as Mortimer, whose life gets very quickly complicated when his aunts come clean about their deadly little hobby.

While trying to protect them and Teddy from getting caught and stopping them from committing any more murders, he inexplicably distances himself from his fiancée, Elaine Harper.

She keeps following him back into the house – with the inconvenient result of getting mixed up in the whole affair without ever really realising what is going on. Kate De Cesare, who played Elaine, gave a good performance as a likeable and determined 1940s gal with enough spunk to stand up to Mortimer and Teddy’s sinister and crazed brother Jonathan and the rather dubious and tipsy Dr Einstein.

These two turn up with a body of their own along with a decidedly criminal agenda, which cannot be foiled by the incompetent neighbourhood police officers.

I found Joe Depasquale’s Jonathan Brewster to be rather over-the-top when it came to the playing of a homicidal maniac – but it did fit the 1940s cliché.

Renato Dimech’s Dr Einstein meanwhile was perfectly acceptable in terms of characterisation but was quite over-stylised and the mad-professor references were a tad too much.

As one of the bumbling officers, Colin Willis, who played Officer O’Hara, a stifled thespian forced to do repetitive police work, made his mark with an inordinately long drone about a hypothetical play he wanted to write – in a speech so annoying that it was good.

Mr Willis gave it his characteristic comic tone. I did like the clear nod to 1940s radio with a pianist and two singers being added as a fixture throughout the performance – they served to add the appropriate sort of sound effects and gave it some authenticity with a twist.

Arsenic and Old Lace is a play that celebrates the unwholesome aspect of the twee, making very improbable characters funny enough to keep an audience pleasantly entertained.