PCT’s Dark Comedy – “Arsenic & Old Lace”

Martha and Abby Brewster (Diane Hooper and Allison Fagan) spy on the strangers who have entered their home (Dan Griscom as Dr. Einstein and Lee Abrams as Jonathan Brewster).

Tickets are on sale now for the Pickerington Community Theatre (PCT) production of Arsenic and Old Lace, opening March 18 at the Wigwam Event Center.

Director Coreen Janetzke describes the play as “a fun, entertaining show about a family named Brewster in Brooklyn, New York, 1941.

The two elderly sisters, Abby and Martha, live in the house their eccentric father left them with their nephew Teddy, who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt, and their other nephew, Mortimer, who is a theater critic.

In the play, Mortimer discovers his aunts have been giving poisoned elderberry wine to lonely, widowed men as a ‘charity’ and Teddy buries their bodies in the cellar. The third and estranged nephew Jonathan arrives unexpectedly with an eccentric and intoxicated doctor, and hilarity ensues.”

Mortimer Brewster (Adam Schroeder) comforts his fiancée, Elaine Harper (Rachel Wiltshire).

Arsenic and Old Lace originally debuted on Broadway in 1941 and starred Boris Karloff. In 1944, Frank Capra directed Cary Grant in a movie version.

“People will want to see this play for sheer entertainment and to spend an evening laughing,” Janetzke said. “This is such a well-written, funny show, and audience members will get a chance to escape our current world craziness and just relax in a lovely theater and laugh and laugh.”

There are some familiar faces among the actors.

“This cast has been such a joy to work with,” Janetzke said. “They are so talented, and it has been so fun to have a mix of people in the cast. We have some seasoned acting veterans as well as some people who have never been on stage before. The cast has done an amazing job of bringing the zany characters in the Brewster home to life.”

The performances are the weekends of March 18 and March 26. Friday and Saturday shows begin 8 pm with Sunday matinees at 2 pm.

Tickets are $19.00 per adult, $17.00 for seniors and $17.00 for children 12 and younger. You may purchase tickets online (up to two hours before showtime) or at the theater on the day of your selected performance (one hour before showtime). Tickets purchased online will be available for pick up at the will call table at the theater one hour before showtime. If you have any questions, please call the PCT Box Office at (614) 508-0036.

The Wigwam Theatre is located at 10190 Blacklick-Eastern Road Northwest in Pickerington.