By GARY DEMUTH
Salina Journal
ABILENE -- The comedy classic "Arsenic and Old Lace" might deal with dark matters, but it's anything but a dark play.
"It's really very sweet and fun," said Marc Liby, who is directing the play at Great Plains Theatre.
Even when the two lead characters are little old ladies who poison lonely old men and bury them in the cellar?
"But they're two sweet ladies that everyone can relate to," Liby said.
As long as you don't drink their elderberry wine, that is.
"Arsenic and Old Lace" opens tonight and runs through Nov. 1 at the theater, Third and Mulberry, Abilene.
The plot of the play throws together elements that in any other situation would be dark indeed: Mortimer Brewster, a theater-hating drama critic, finds that his two beloved elderly aunts are serial killers, poisoning lonely old men in what they consider acts of charity.
Nephew Teddy believes he's former President Theodore Roosevelt and is digging the Panama Canal in the cellar -- where the bodies are buried.
Still another nephew, Jonathan, is an escaped convict and killer suffering through botched plastic surgery that makes him resemble horror film star Boris Karloff (Karloff actually played the role in the original 1941 Broadway production).
To top it all off, Mortimer believes he's going insane and has inherited his relatives' homicidal impulses.
"It's more of a situational comedy with really great characters," Liby said. "It just so happens that everyone's crazy in the show."
The cast is made up of a mixture of Great Plains Theatre veterans and newcomers from throughout the U.S., Liby said.
The majority of these actors will be featured in the next offering at the theater, the comedy "Moon Over Buffalo," which opens Nov. 6, less than a week after "Arsenic and Old Lace" closes.
"They're performing 'Arsenic' at night and rehearsing 'Moon' during the day," Liby said. "It's working out very well for us."
It helps that all the actors are experienced and on top of the material, he said.
"When I have strong casts like this, it makes me look really good," Liby said.
nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
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