TOM TITUS -- Theater Review

Just as Margaret Mitchell only wrote one novel (“Gone With the Wind”)

and forever earned a place in entertainment history, so Joseph Kesslering

is known for just one play, but that one is among the world’s most

popular.

“Arsenic and Old Lace” is, quite literally, one of a kind. Its

characters and situations can be found nowhere else in the theater. Its

carefully balanced comedy and menace, spiced by unique farcical elements,

have made it one of the most-produced plays in community theater.

The latest incarnation of this creepy comedy is being presented at

Costa Mesa’s Trilogy Playhouse, where, even played relatively straight,

it generates abundant laughter.

Its rather cramped setting and period costumes successfully transport

the audience back to pre-World War II Brooklyn, where two maiden ladies

provide eternal rest for a succession of lonely elderly gentlemen with

lethal toasts of elderberry wine.

Director Alicia Butler has gathered an enthusiastic cast -- some

enthusiastic enough to play two roles -- and her production is quite

enjoyable. Even the most familiar lines draw appreciative reactions as

this collection of assorted crazies assembles the play’s comically

ludicrous plot.

Sharon Simonian and Eileen T. Conan are well cast as the murderous

old ladies. Simonian gushes and giggles wonderfully as Aunt Abby, while

Conan offers polite, discreet counterpoint as Aunt Martha, a ringer for

the late Lillian Gish. Their interplay together is particularly

watchable.

As their drama critic nephew Mortimer, Robert Adan is strong on pace

and delivery, but often misses an opportunity to enhance the

outlandishness of his situation, particularly when dealing with the

problem of a body in the aunts’ window seat. He is more assured when

confronting his malignant, unwelcome brother.

The latter role, the fiendish Jonathan Brewster, is skillfully

rendered by Scott Narver, with his sepulchral speech pattern and clipped

consonants. Although intended to resemble Boris Karloff (who actually

played the role on Broadway), Narver bears more of a likeness to Basil

Rathbone, who menaced Cary Grant in the movie version.

James Mulligan, a fixture at the Trilogy, beautifully enacts

Jonathan’s tipsy German plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein, with only a trace

of Peter Lorre from the film adaptation. Mulligan, the theater’s resident

set designer, also created the vintage Brooklyn living room with its many

entrances and exits.

The other Brewster brother, Teddy, who imagines himself as Theodore

Roosevelt and charges frequently up the stairs, is a “bully” performance

by Bob Markland. Lesa Vander Bie as Mortimer’s fiancee, who is perplexed

by the strange occurrences, projects a fine, fiery spirit.

The dimwitted Irish cop who dishes out the plot of his own play to a

bound and gagged Mortimer is nicely handled by Harv Popick, while Tom

Cherrier has a brassy authority as his superior, Lieutenant Rooney, and

also contributes a cameo as Vander Bie’s clergyman father.

Also doing double duty -- and doing so in double time in the quick

change department -- is George Pelham as both a police officer and the

superintendent of the funny farm for which some of the family is bound.

It’s the latter role in which Pelham really scores with his nit picky,

officious mannerisms.

Bruno Stoecklein has an eerily funny cameo as a prospective candidate

for a lock in Teddy’s basement Panama Canal. James Miller completes the

cast as another police officer.

No matter how many times you’ve chuckled through “Arsenic and Old

Lace,” this classic chilling comedy is worth a revisit.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Thursdays and Saturdays.

FYI

WHAT: “Arsenic and Old Lace”

WHERE: Trilogy Playhouse, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, with matinees 3:30 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 25

COST: $13-$15

CALL: (714) 957-33347