Lakewood Theatre Company Opens With ARSENIC AND OLD LACE

Drama critic Mortimer Brewster’s engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat. Mortimer rushes to tell his aunts only to learn that the ladies aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him!  One of the fastest and craziest comedies of the American stage, Arsenic and Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring’s farce of manslaughter and merriment, will open at Lakewood Theatre Company on Friday September 8, 2023, at 7:30 PM. 

Directed by Don Alder, the comedy continues through Sunday October 15, 2023. Performances are Thurs-Sat at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2:00 PM, one Saturday (September 30) at 2:00 PM, and one Wednesday (September 27) at 7:30 PM. Lakewood Theatre Company features an intimate 220-seat theatre located at Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S. State Street in Lake Oswego. 

The Title Sponsors for Arsenic and Old Lace are Andy & Nancy Bryant. 

Ticket prices are $39 for adults and $36 for seniors. Other discounts are available for students and groups. For additional information and tickets, call the Lakewood Box Office at (503) 635-3901 or order online at www.lakewood-center.org. 

Special note: On Wednesday, September 27, the theatre continues its Wine/Whiskey on Wednesday program called WOW: 25-35. For audience-goers 35 and under, tickets are priced at $25 each. Use the code WOW25 when ordering tickets online to get this special discount. At this performance, there will be a complimentary wine tasting one hour before curtain courtesy of an Oregon vineyard. OLCC rules apply! Bring your ID for the tasting!

About the Play: Abby (Caren Graham) and Martha Brewster (Jane Bement Geesman) are undoubtedly two of the nicest little old ladies anybody could hope to meet. Their old Victorian house in Brooklyn witnesses a steady stream of good deeds done by the two sisters. Toys for the poor children, beef broth for Officer Brophy’s (Erik James) ailing wife, and quince jam for the minister Rev. Harper (Michael Streeter), are just a few of their kindly acts.

However, the sisters have one rather bad habit — one secret vice in their otherwise blameless lives. They murder men. Abby claims they’ve done in twelve. Martha is of the opinion it’s only eleven; one having died a natural death.

It is Mortimer (Tom Walton), their nephew, a New York drama critic, who unwittingly discovers his aunts’ secret profession. But it isn’t just his aunts he has to worry about. Into the mix comes brother Teddy (Grant Byington) who thinks he’s really Theodore Roosevelt; Brother Jonathan (Todd Hermanson) who insists he really isn’t Boris Karloff; Doctor Einstein (Mark Schwahn) who specializes in making criminals unrecognizable by plastic surgery; Mr. Witherspoon (Robert Lovitz) an unwitting lodger, and Elaine Harper (Melissa Whitney), Mortimer’s fiancée, who begins to rethink her journey to the altar. Things really begin to unravel, however, when New York’s finest, Officer Klein (Joe Healy), Officer O’Hara (Will Futterman) and Lieutenant Rooney (Jeremy Southard) come to visit.

LTC’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace is directed by Don Alder, set and lighting design is by Larry Larsen, costume design is by Douglas Hout, and sound design is by Marcus Storey. The stage manager is Evan Tait, properties are by Micah Steury, the production manager is Kendra Comerford, and the producer is Steve Knox.

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