Skip to main content

Arsenic & Old Lace @ The Spring, Havant

tumblr_inline_nzip7yXl1k1rgiv1h_500How do you approach a play when the film based on it is steeped in generations of lavish praise and is a regular on “favourite” and “best” lists? Well, if Humdrum’s take on Arsenic & Old Lace is anything to go by the answer is to pepper your cast with people who’ve never seen the movie and then let their imaginations run wild.
I must confess though that I have seen the film. Many times in fact… my wife introduced it to me expecting a faint response and it quickly became a personal favourite and a guaranteed pick-me-up on days when I just don’t want to crawl out of bed!
Thankfully Humdrum have a knack for finding the humanity in a piece, a rare gift indeed for a troupe of locally-sourced unpaid performers. Director James George keeps up the pace and ensures that the scripted comedic lines are supplemented with a sprinkling of sight gags and audio goofs. There are too many to list, but I must give mention to a wonderful sound queue as a body is hidden below stairs and the brief moment Teddy forgets he’s Roosevelt and channels his inner Evita.
The performances are uniformly good, with Lin Warner and Sue Bartlettwonderful in the central roles of the Brewster sisters, spinster serial killers who will happily admit to murder but take great offence when accused of telling a lie. They form the centre piece of the show and are surrounded by a rogue’s gallery of oddball characters. Tim Sturton-Davies makes Mortimer Brewster the straight man of the piece, eschewing the zaniness Cary Grant brought to the role in favour of a WASP-ish demeanour and a level-headed approach to the anarchy around him. Mortimer is a theatre critic who hates plays, but he’s a good man at heart. His brother Jonathan however is a wanted man with a predilection for torture and a face made to look like Boris Karloff because of botched surgery. Ben McCready is larger than life as the smug thug, strutting about the stage like the biggest kid in the playground.
The real apple in the Brewster family tree though is Teddy, the third brother who thinks himself the President of the same name, blows a bugle and charges every time he has to go upstairs and is crafting the Panama Canal in the basement. Ben Counter is a force of nature and gives some of the finest eyebrow acting ever seen on the south coast as well as delivering many of the funniest moments in the show.
I left the theatre with only one question burning in my head… why don’t we see more productions of a play that is still incredibly funny? I don’t have the answer, so grab one of the few remaining tickets and see this for yourself!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"I'm just focused on getting that third trophy and enjoying the rest of my time with the guys here." David Goodwin on preparing for Playoff Finals Weekend

photo courtesy of William Cherry, Press Eye It’s EIHL playoff final weekend! After eight months of toil, four teams will face off for the chance to lift the last silverware of the season. First up Belfast Giants take on Cardiff Devils so I caught up with David Goodwin to see how the team are feeling after a battle against Dundee Stars and how ready they are for the games ahead. It was, I suggest, an intense weekend for the team. “Yeah, I mean it was. It always is. The quarterfinals… you never know what you're going to get.” Goodwin replies. “On one hand, you have us, the Giants, who are coming off a league title win, so we're on a high. But then you got Dundee, who don't want to go away quietly. They were fighting and scratching and clawing for every inch and it lead to two feisty games. “I give Dundee a lot of credit. They threw everything they had at us. But ultimately, I think our consistent play, maybe some of our higher skill was able to shine through and get the...

"If it was easy everybody would do it. That’s the best part about this, it’s hard!" Jeff Baum on Belfast Giants record-setting seventh league title

  Last weekend the Belfast Giants etched their names, once again, in the EIHL history books with a record-setting seventh league title. A dramatic win for the men in teal, away in Nottingham in the final minutes of the season, was a fitting end to a spectacular season and though there are still play off games to contend with, the club have made sure to celebrate their success. We caught up with Jeff Baum to see just how much fun was had and to hear about how he keeps focused for the games still to come. “It’s a very unique situation to win a trophy and still have - hopefully - four more games to keep playing. It’s a great honour to have finished out the league season the way we wanted to and to be able to celebrate that together…. That sigh of relief that we’ve been able to accomplish a goal we set ourselves at the beginning of the season. That’s two goals checked off, from the three we set ourselves at the beginning of every season. Now it’s time to reset our mindset, get back ...

"Certain games you look to, maybe against like the likes of Cardiff or Sheffield or Nottingham" - Josh Roach looks to the season ahead for the Belfast Giants

With player announcements in full flow, CHL fixtures next month and the Elite League season hot on its heels what better time to get back to chatting with players on what they are up to and their thoughts on the season ahead. Fresh off announcing his return to the  Belfast Giants we caught up with Josh Roach . “We're starting to get close to that pre-pre-season time, so I’m enjoying a little bit more relaxing before we get back into it… it won't be long.” Roach tells us, before sharing how he has spent his summer. “I was home for a quick visit right at the end of the season and then we went on a little holiday, but other than that I've just been on the island. It's kind of nice to have some downtime in Belfast and explore around here a bit more.” “You don't really get the opportunity many times to stay for summer in the place you play, so you get comfortable. This is year five for me, so it is really is like a second home and honestly, it feels more weird t...