Josh and Caroline Beadle waited until the timing was perfect — and now it is — to produce one of their favorite shows, “Arsenic and Old Lace.” It opens Feb. 5, running weekends through Feb. 27, at Three Brothers Theatre.
“We’ve been talking about it ever since we started the theater,” said Josh, the theater’s executive director, who lives with his wife and the theater’s artistic director, Caroline, in Wadsworth.
“This is a show that Caroline and I love,” he said. “It’s one of those perfect scripts, those perfect comedies that are so well laid out. If you don’t laugh during the show, well, then we can’t help you,” he said with a chuckle.
Most folks will recognize the name of the dark comedic play, written in 1939, which became a 1944 movie starring Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a betrothed man who discovers his two sweet old aunts doing something sinister. Meanwhile, Mortimer’s uncle thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt and Mortimer’s murderous brother returns to the aunt’s home hoping to use it as a hideout.
“They always say there are only so many plots in the world,” Beadle said. “But how many plots are like this? I don’t think there are any.”
The key to the play’s success is to maintain a balance of well-timed comedy with a slice of darkness, he said.
“We don’t’ want to go too light and comic. We don’t want people to forget what these characters are doing,” for example, Mortimer’s aunts are murdering who they think are lonely, old men.
Beadle said taking on “Arsenic and Old Lace,” is a great New Year’s challenge because he’s used to doing smaller shows with fewer characters.
This production has 13 characters, he said, which makes staging more complex. In fact, the Beadles are revamping the theater for this performance, creating a rising platform for the audience in a type of theater in the round, he said. “We have not built a set this complex before,” he said.
Beadle said the play resembles a French comedy. “It’s all about people entering and exiting. There are scenes and acts in the show, but every half page, somebody leaves the room or somebody comes in.”
Beadle added he and Caroline wanted the show to feature as many people as possible who have been involved with the theater in the past several years, including actors and directors.
“We wanted to have that ensemble-like experience to start off the year on a good note,” he said.
Caroline is playing one of the aunts. Rick Adams, one of the theater’s founders, is playing Mortimer’s brother, and Eric Martin, who’s acted in several plays with the company over the past few years, is portraying Mortimer.
“Eric is Mortimer,” Beadle said. “He’s got that personality. There are certain people in life you can just feel the whirlwind of life all around them, and they’re in the center of it all. It kind of frazzles them. But they don’t get knocked over by it.”
Beadle said the play is timeless because it contains relevant themes, for example, references to religion, cultural beliefs and differences.
Plus he said, the characters “are people we could potentially meet today. We all have those kinds of aunts or grandmothers who might say something that’s not necessarily PC, and we all have that brother or nephew or uncle who’s the black sheep who never comes around, but when he’s in the room, nobody knows how to act anymore.
“I love this show,” Beadle said, adding it’s one of top 10 favorites.
“Our hope is for people who have seen the show before to come and enjoy our version of it, but also to snag in people who have heard of it but haven’t seen it, and hopefully tag in some younger folks.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
‘Arsenic and Old Lace’
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Dates: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Feb. 5-27
Where: Three Brothers Theatre, 115 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $20 for adults; $15 seniors and students
Information: 708-548-0283; www.3brostheatre.com