Arsenic and Old Lace : A Play in Three Acts

by Joseph Kesselring

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Description

An easy going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle aunts have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar.

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Member Reviews

11 reviews
This is a sublimely funny play - and even better when Mary Anne Canaday and I are doing it. We did this in Abbeville, SC - and, boy, is there a lot of silverware to fuss with. You know, you can act your arse off, but sometimes all you have to do is come out on stage in mourning and an audience cracks up.
One of my favorite plays of all time - funny, just a little creepy and still fun even many years after it was written.
This entertaining play about a very strange family is sure to entertain the more educated students in high school. Mortimer brings his newlywed to his aunts’ house in Brooklyn and that is where the strangeness begins. He is a critic who throughout these well-written humorous scenes, realizes his aunts are killing old men and burying them in the basement of their house by their nephew who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt. I would only recommend this play to students who have background information about the Panama Canal and the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt; they will find it much more humorous.
HYSTERICAL read through. I can't wait to perform in this. (An Officer Brophy gently gender-bent so as not to be distracting... I cannot pass for a Mr.)
Cute yarn, fun characters, saw the end coming.
Cute yarn, fun characters, saw the end coming.
Subtle dark humor. Hilarious play.

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Arsenic and Old Lace : A Play in Three Acts
Original title
Arsenic and Old Lace : Play in Three Acts
Original publication date
1939; 1941 (performed) (performed)
Related movies
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944 | IMDb); Arsenic and Old Lace (1969 | IMDb); Hallmark Hall of Fame: Arsenic and Old Lace (1962 | IMDb)
Original language
English

Classifications

Genre
Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
812.52Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican drama in English20th Century1900-1945
LCC
PS3521 .E775 .A8Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1900-1960

Statistics

Members
742
Popularity
37,711
Reviews
8
Rating
(3.98)
Languages
Dutch, English, German
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
8
ASINs
14