Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It is thought he may have been inspired or at least influenced by actual events that occurred between 1907 and 1916 in Windsor, CT, in which 60 boarding house residents died suspiciously under the hands of Amy-Archer Gilligan the owner of the boarding house. The action of this farcical dark comedy takes place in the Brewster sisters’ living room.. Here the audience is introduced to Abby and Martha Brewster who have a penchant for 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; a brother, Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims; he thinks that they died of yellow fever); and a murderous brother, Jonathan, who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (who originally played that part on Broadway). Of the 12 plays written by Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace was by far the most successful. According to the opening night review in The New York Times, the play was "so funny that none of us will ever forget it." This Naples Players Radio Theatre production of Arsenic and Old Lace features the vocal talents of Jessie Hughes as Mortimer Brewster; Pamela Austin as Elaine Harper; Pat Aston as Reverend Harper and Mr Witherspoon; Jim Heffernan as Dr Einstein; Vic Carolli as Jonathan Brewster; Norm Toback as Lieutenant Rooney; Danny Miller as Officer Brophy; the composite voices of Marilyn Hibertem and Iris Shur as Martha Brewster; the composite voices of Theresa Bill and Cindy Malley as Abby Brewster and Kip Jones as Teddy Roosevelt. Special acknowledgement is given to Lena Neal, Terry Whalley and Nancy Robordy who also lent their vocal talents to this production.
