Murderous Aunts and a delusional nephew make for a wacky family dynamic in Aresenic and Old Lace

The Community Players are having a bloody good time bringing the classic farce Arsenic and Old Lace to life on the stage of the Jenks Auditorium in Pawtucket. The show runs until January 19.

Written in 1941 by Joseph Kesselring, the story is about the two Brewster sisters Abby (Cathy Fox) and Martha (Lynn Price), who live in a house in Brooklyn with their nephews Mortimer (Tom Coughlin) and Teddy (Rick Braun). Mortimer, a theater critic, is engaged to Elaine Harper (Kathleen Seagriff), the daughter of Reverend Harper (Lee Hakeem).

Mortimer is mortified to find a dead body in the window seat of the house and discovers his two aunts have murdered a dozen men by giving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide.

“How did the poison get in the wine?” Mortimer asks.

“Oh, we put it in the wine cause it’s less noticeable,” Martha replies. “When it’s in tea, it has a distinct odor.”

That exchange is typical of the dry wit of Kesselring’s dialogue. There is much more of it in a story that gets even more madcap as it proceeds.

The Brewsters are a truly odd bunch of characters. Besides his murderous aunts, Mortimer has to deal with Teddy’s belief he is President Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy’s favorite pasttime is running up the stairs and yelling, “Charge!” as if he is going up San Juan Hill. He also is digging the Panama Canal – in the basement.

Mortimer’s long lost brother Jonathan (Eric Barbato) soon arrives with his friend Dr. Einstein (Lawrence Calabro) in tow. Jonathan is a bad man who resembles Boris Karloff after some botched plastic surgery. The two unwanted house guests are determined to stir up even more trouble for everyone in the house.

The large ensemble cast succeeds brilliantly in bringing these wacky characters to life. Fox makes Abby into a cheerful eccentric, and she meshes well with her counterpart Price. These two actresses manage the difficult feat of being charming and likable even though they are also mass murderers.

Coughlin is a solid presence as Mortimer. He has exquisite comic timing and serves as the dependable voice of reason in a sea of insanity. One funny moment is when he chases a potential victim of his two aunts around the living room in an effort to save his life.

Barbato brings the right amount of menace to Jonathan, who poses a real threat to Mortimer in the play’s third act. Braun and Calabro deliver very fine comic performances and complement the other actors perfectly in every scene, and the direction by Peggy Pires is crisp and fast paced.

Victor Turenne’s set design convincingly recreates a Brooklyn home in the 1940s, complete with vintage furniture and antiques.

Arsenic and Old Lace holds up pretty well for a play more than 70 years old. This production is a well-staged, entertaining way to spend a few hours.

For reservations, go to thecommunityplayers.org. Or call 401-726-6860.