About the work
Arsenic and Old Lace is a black comedy in three acts by Joseph Kesselring, premiered on 10 January 1941 at the Fulton Theatre on Broadway, where it ran for more than three years. The material became known worldwide through Frank Capra's 1944 film adaptation with Cary Grant. The play combines macabre murder with genial drawing-room comedy.
Plot
The theatre critic Mortimer Brewster is about to marry when he discovers that his two charming old aunts, Abby and Martha, pursue a gruesome hobby: out of sheer charity they "release" lonely elderly gentlemen with a glass of elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and a pinch of cyanide — and have the bodies buried in the cellar. Mortimer's brother Teddy, who believes himself to be Theodore Roosevelt, digs the "locks" in the cellar and takes the dead for yellow-fever victims. When Mortimer's criminal brother Jonathan turns up with a corpse of his own and the alcoholic plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein, the chaos escalates. Mortimer tries desperately to cover everything up and to save the family from discovery.
Cultural significance
Arsenic and Old Lace became one of the most-performed works of American boulevard and comedy theatre and remains a reliable audience success on stages worldwide. Capra's film of the same name turned the story into a classic of black humour. The mix of harmless façade and grotesque murderousness is regarded as a model of the "black comedy" and had a lasting influence on the genre.