Stephen Vance, Staff
For more than five years, the Meaford Community Theatre group has entertained the community with a wide range of productions, and this month they return to the Meaford Hall stage with a dark comedy – Arsenic and Old Lace.
The theatre group says that this play is a classic dark comedy written by Joseph Kesselring, and was first performed on Broadway in 1941.
“The play focuses on two eccentric sisters, some may say “crazy but lovable” old ladies with a secret. They bump off lonely men by serving them elderberry wine laced with a bit of arsenic and a pinch of cyanide. The ladies are joined by two weird nephews, Jonathan, who looks like Boris Karloff, and Teddy, who believes he is former President Roosevelt. A third brother, Mortimer, is a reluctant theatre critic and is in a complicated love affair with his soon to be wife, Elaine, the minister’s daughter. Just to add a bit more fun and frolic, a few bungling cops and a couple of deadbeats are thrown into the mix,” said the theatre group of its upcoming production. “It is a rollicking fast-paced comedy that will be sure to have you laughing throughout.”
The amateur theatre group group has a number of successful productions under their collective belt, notably with its well-received annual Remembrance Day productions as well as its spring plays, two of which – Harvest Moon and Andrew Gawley, The Man With Steel Hands – were written by Meaford’s Deputy Mayor and enthusiastic thespian, Harley Greenfield.
It’s not just the actors on the stage that make these productions shine, the plays also involve local set designers, costumers, directors, crew and actors, including many students from our elementary and high schools.
The stage production of Arsenic and Old Lace is presented by the Meaford Community Theatre company and will run at the Meaford Hall Opera House nightly from April 21 to 23, with a Sunday matinee on April 24. Tickets (adults $18, children $16) are available at the Meaford Hall box office, or by calling 1.877.538.0463.
