Arsenic and Old Lace

Summary

BBC production of Joseph Kesselring’s farcical dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace.

Theatre play

Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring [more information]

Play synopsis

'The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to 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 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); and a murderous brother 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 (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played by Karloff).' Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_%28play%29.

Production history

Written in 1939, this play opened at the Fulton Theatre, New York in 1941. It was one of the most successful farces on the British stage, chalking up 1337 performances at the Strand Theatre, London where it opened in 1942 (Radio Times, 31 May 1957, p. 9).

Date of transmission

Sunday 2 June 1957

Time

8.00pm

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Director

Hugh Stewart

Producer

Barbara Burnham

Playwright

Joseph Kesselring

Designer

Frederick Knapman

Cast

Anna Barry	Elaine Harper
George Benson	Teddy Brewster
Larry Burns	Officer Brophy
Jean Cadell	Abby Brewster
Dan Cunningham	Officer O’Hara
Valentine Dyall	Jonathan Brewster
Charles Farrell	Lieutenant Rooney
John Gordon	Officer Klein
William Lucas	Mortimer Brewster
Arthur Ridley	Mr Witherspoon
Frederick Schrecker	Dr Einstein
Tony Sympson	Mr Gibbs
Marda Vanne	Martha Brewster
Richard Williams	The Rev. Dr Harper

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama; comedy; farce

Print sources

Title

Arsenic and Old Lace (Audience Research Report)

Archive

BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC) [more information]

Address

Peppard Road
Caversham Park
Reading
Berkshire
RG4 8TZ
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)118 948 6281

Email

heritage@bbc.co.uk

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/wac

Access

The WAC is open from 9.30am to 5.00pm on Wednesdays to Fridays throughout the year to academics, postgraduate students and writers by appointment.

Reference

Report reference VR/57/308, held in file R9/7/28

Title

BBC Television: Arsenic and Old Lace (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 3 June 1957, p. 3

Title

Facing the Globe (Newspaper review)

Author/creator

Maurice Richardson (Reviewer)

Reference

The Observer, 9 June 1957, p. 10

Title

On the Air (Newspaper review)

Author/creator

G. A. Olden (Reviewer)

Reference

The Irish Times, 6 June 1957, p. 8

Title

Radio Times, 31 May 1957 (Magazine)

Linking notes

pp. 9 (article) and 11 (listing)