Munster Express Online

The emphasis was firmly on entertainment at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny for an in-house production of the classic comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Directed by Mary Craddock in a splendid set by Andrew Small, the large cast had a capacity audience in floods and howls of laughter as the madcap antics swiftly and expertly gained momentum as the two dotty and daft Brewster sisters, killed off a dozen or so victims and got their brother who thought he was president Roosevelt to bury the bodies in the basement, that he thought was the Panama Canal.

It was expertly cast with some fine cameos from Tom O’Loughlin, Niall Fitzpatrick, Declan Taylor, Donal O’Brien, Paddy Behan, Dick Holland and Gerry Cody. Andrew Small was a howl as the deluded brother Teddy. As the villains Joe Murray as Dr. Einstein and Brendan Corcoran as Jonathan Brewster were excellent and I loved the zombie shoulders of Corcoran as he menaced with skill and style.

Amid the craziness, Orna Ward played a blinder as the often bewildered beauty Elaine Harper who is betrothed to drama critic Mortimer Brewster. Mortimer hates his job and his in-jokes about critics were a fun barb. He managed to make his eyes seem to enlarge and go pop and his frantic antics were masterful. Michael Hayes shone in the part. But it was the two sisters who garnered the applause and adulation and Colette Browne as Abby and Claire Gibbs as Martha were splendid as they gloriously down-played the innocent-like sisters of death and comic destruction.

It is a play that I know well and it is to this casts’ credit that they made it new and refreshing and I marvelled at the comedic ingenuity of this ensemble.