‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ opens Thursday at Alpena Civic Theatre

ALPENA -- Keep a close eye on your drinks, because you never know who might be out to get you.

Find out who's getting whom at Alpena Civic Theatre's "Arsenic and Old Lace," which opens Thursday and runs for two weekends.

The dark comedy features a cast of 14, but that number may go down as the night grows older.

"This show is actually based on a true story," said Director Scott Edgar. "It was a lady that had opened her house to older gentlemen after her husband died, and the undertaker would come in at the very wee hours of the morning, and take out the bodies. And, the last they had, as far as numbers went, was 50."

Yes, that's 50 bodies.

The woman was poisoning them.

"She put arsenic and strychnine in their elderberry wine," Edgar said. "And so, the prosecuting attorney was able to convict her. And the playwright that wrote this play got ahold of the prosecuting attorney and asked if they could use this story for a play. And so, the two of them collaborated on it and wrote the play, and it's been a huge success."

ACT has done the play before, but it's due.

"It's been roughly 20 years since we did it here," Edgar said of presenting the play at ACT.

"Arsenic and Old Lace" is a 1941 play by Joseph Kesselring, which was such a hit that it ran on Broadway for three-and-a-half years. In 1944, the Frank Capra film of the same name was released, starring Cary Grant.

In the play, Mortimer Brewster, a writer who swore off marriage, falls in love with Elaine Harper, his neighbor and the minister's daughter. The pair gets married on Halloween. Elaine goes to tell her father and pack for the honeymoon, and Mortimer goes back to Abby and Martha, the aunts who raised him in the aging family home. Mortimer's brother, Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, lives with them.

In a search for some notes, Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in the window seat. Horrified, he assumes Teddy's delusions have led him to murder. Then his aunts, with no remorse, explain that they minister to lonely old bachelors by ending their "suffering." They have Teddy bury the bodies in the basement, as he thinks they are yellow fever victims.

In the ACT version, many favorites take to the stage.

The cast includes David Usher, Bill Powell, Matt Southwell, Carol Rundell, Julie Meyers, Lucas Moquin, Nick Hartman, Randy Bouchard, Doug Niergarth, Christine Elowski, Zach Clement, Robby Robertson, Amanda Wentz, and Bruce Michaud.

Doreen Kriniak is the assistant director.

"A lot of familiar faces," Edgar said of the cast. "They have all been pulling together, and working hard together. And, I couldn't be prouder of them, really."

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $15 per adult, $8 per student.

The box office is open from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 3 p.m. to curtain for evening performances, and noon to curtain for matinees.

Call 989-354-3624 and leave a message.