{"id":343,"date":"2015-01-24T17:41:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T17:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cpwp.comptonplayers.co.uk\/?page_id=343"},"modified":"2015-02-16T09:58:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T09:58:43","slug":"arsenic-and-old-lace","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/?page_id=343","title":{"rendered":"Arsenic and Old Lace (1967)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joseph Kesselring<\/span><\/p>\n

7th – 9th December 1967<\/h2>\n

Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic, has just got married and is about to go on his honeymoon when he discovers insanity runs in his family. His sweet maiden aunts poison lonely old men and have a number of corpses buried in the cellar…<\/p>\n

\n

The Cast<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abby Brewster: Margaret Pilkington
\nThe Rev. Dr Harper: David Baird
\nTeddy Brewster: Tony Mudd
\nOfficer Brophy: Tom Stephens
\nOfficer Klein: Tony Irvin
\nMartha Brewster: Katherine Jones
\nMortimer Brewster: Mike Yates
\nElaine Harper: Molly Gray
\nMr Gibbs: Frank Meakins
\nJonathon Brewster: Peter Monger
\nDr Einstein: Roger Gray
\nOfficer O\u2019Hara: John Thomas
\nLieutenant Rooney: David Jessett
\nMr Witherspoon: Graham Lawrence<\/p>\n

Produced by Frank Meakin<\/p><\/div>\n

Newbury Weekly News review<\/h3>\n
\n

Compton Players cope with snow and power cut<\/h2>\n

The production of Arsenic and Old Lace<\/strong> by Joseph Kesselring presented on Thursday, Friday and Saturday by Compton Players in the Coronation Hall was badly affected by the wintry weather.<\/p>\n

A power cut on Friday lasting for two hours lost the box office at least 50 bookings and Saturday\u2019s snow-fall prevented at least 30 people from attending the show.<\/p>\n

Mr Frank Meakins the producer said \u201cWe will have to accept a loss on this production but it just can\u2019t be helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience on Thursday evening and those that did manage to attend on the other two performances were treated to a very good production. As usual each performer seemed exactly right for the part.<\/p>\n

Margaret Pilkington and Katherine Jones were very convincing as the two gentle sisters who killed their lodgers rather than see them live a lonely life, and Tony Mudd as their simple nephew who thought he was \u201cTeddy Roosevelt\u201d brought many a chuckle with his mad \u201cCharge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outstanding performance, however, was that of Roger Gray as \u201cDr Einstein\u201d \u2013 a part that called for many changes of mood. He expressed them all so convincingly that in spite of his nasty character everyone seemed pleased that he got away scot-free in the end.<\/p>\n

Molly Gray as Elaine Harpen the frustrated fianc\u00e9e of Mortimer Brewster gave a good show of coquetry mixed with bewilderment. But a member of the audience was heard to say \u201cthey didn\u2019t wear dresses that short in the late 1930s\u201d which was the time setting for the play.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joseph Kesselring 7th – 9th December 1967 Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic, has just got married and is about to go on his honeymoon when he discovers insanity runs in his family. His sweet maiden aunts poison lonely old men and have a number of corpses buried in the cellar… The Cast Abby Brewster: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2602,"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions\/2602"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comptonplayers.co.uk\/comptonplayers-c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}