New life is breathed into an old favourite by some accomplished and very watchable actresses. I speak of course of Angela Thorne (brought into millions of living rooms via the TV comedy series To the Manor Born) and Brigit Forsyth (known to anyone over 50 as the long suffering wife of Likely Lad Rodney Bewes).
Together they are the Brewster sisters - part Borgia/part Adams family - happily putting depressed and homeless men out of their misery. They are a triumph - Angela Thorne giving off the veneer of some ditsy old dear, but clearly in possession of a streak of cold, hard steel and aided and abetted in her misguided, charitable poisoning by her sister Martha, played with the same tough determination by Brigit Forsyth. The play of course is old as the hills - turned into a movie starring Cary Grant way back in 1942 - and might benefit from some judicious pruning, being just a little too long post interval. But you can't take away the strength of the cast, nor the absurdity of the story. No-one knocking at the Brewster door is turned away, but with one brother who sees himself as President Roosevelt, and another brother whose face might grace the front of Fright Night Weekly, frankly who would want to stay - unless it's to be amiable to the two harmless old sisters, clutching their bottle of homemade elderberry wine? Then, there's a small matter of the dozen or so bodies in the Panama Canal - dug so beautifully in the cellar by President Roosevelt. Mad? Not a bit of it. Newspaper drama critic, Mortimer Brewster, belongs to the sane side of the family, and though his aunts are a little eccentric and his brother claims to run America, he is unaware that their activities include mass murder and burial - hence the lines "There's a body in the window seat!" "Yes, dear, we know," produce gales of laughter. Andrew Havill's shock when he hears this, as the hapless Mortimer, is just the start of a whole unravelling of secrets one by one, each one jerking him from complete disbelief to some kind of coping mechanism, before the next jolt hits him. A very enjoyable performance. I wish I could say I enjoyed Sylvester McCoy's part as much, but his penchant for playing mad doctors doesn't sustain here and many of his words were lost on me as he grappled with a strong German accent. The opening night saw the show open to an enthusiastic and very full theatre - no risks here, doing exactly what it says on the tin. A fun night out for the most part. Arsenic And Old Lace is on at the Norwich Theatre Royal and runs until Saturday 18 June, 2005. For more information call 01603 630000. | 
