With a first-time director and a highly experienced cast, the Lake Country Players (LCP) presented four performances of the classic dark comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” last week at Festival Hall in Greensboro.
Written by Joseph Kesserling in 1939, “Arsenic and Old Lace” has aged remarkably well, drawing plenty of laughs and holding the near-full audience’s attention throughout Sunday’s matinee performance.
Essentially, the play deals with a nephew who discovers his dear, old aunts (Rusty Faulk and Debbie McCown) are “well-meaning” serial killers at heart, while he simultaneously deals with the unexpected return of an equally murderous brother (Arthur Shutt) and his accomplice (Michael Alexander).
Meanwhile, newspaper critic Mortimer Brewster, played in the LCP production by veteran actor Michael Homeier, also contends with the distractions of a second loopy brother (Steve Atchley), who is convinced he’s Teddy Roosevelt, his new fiancée Elaine (Lu Feldman), and a cop-turning-playwright (Ed Kercado).
“It was a great opportunity to do a classic play and I had availability, so it was a perfect time to seize the opportunity and I am very glad I did,” Homeier said after the final curtain call. “Now at the end of the road, looking back, I feel very fortunate to have been able to be a part of this.”
Homeier, who owned a small theater company in Hollywood for 20 years before moving to Eatonton, added he particularly enjoyed working with LCP board chair and first-time director Mo Brower, as well as assistant director Anenaca Simpson, who also played the part of a police officer in the play.
“We had a smooth process for a first-time director and a first-time assistant director. They were phenomenal and very good at directing,” he said. “I’ve worked with a lot of directors over several years, and they were wonderful. And that showed up in the show.”
Though Brower is no stranger to local theater productions (most recently she acted in and choreographed last year’s “9-to-5” musical production at The Plaza in Eatonton), her only prior directing experience came more than six years ago as an assistant on “‘Til Beth Do Us Part” at Festival Hall. She explained it’s difficult to act and direct in the same production, so when the opportunity arose this time, she was happy to be available.
“To be honest, it happened because we couldn’t find a director. Everyone else was busy and we wanted to do this play and I love this play,” Brower said. “I had read it in junior high school and then the movie came on one night and I watched it again and I was like, ‘Wait a minute. You know what? This is the perfect one for me to direct because I know it so well.’” Brower, a professionally trained dancer, also admitted she was somewhat surprised to discover she found directing to be easier for her than choreography.
“But it was only because the cast was so good that they made the job easier for me,” she added. “Choreographing is harder because you don’t know the skill level of the people that you’re working with, so often I found that you have to change it with the directing. The cast was so good that it wasn’t really difficult to do. They were really easy to work with.”
Also appearing in LCP’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” were Carol Grant, Drace Langford, and William Thompson.