'Arsenic and Old Lace' showcases LFC's dark side
By Laura McMullen, Staff Writer
November 8, 2007 | 11 p.m.
The Lost Flamingo Company's “Arsenic and Old Lace,” showing at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10 at Mitchell Auditorium, is a dark comedy about the Brewsters, a family on the edge. Jessica Kennedy and Jessie Moore play two elderly aunties who kill old men as a mercy to “save them from the troubles of the world.” And the two women are "the good guys."
The aunts raise a couple of larger-than-life nephews who also have some questionable behaviors. Teddy (Dylan Combs) is convinced that he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and Mortimer (Kevin Meyer) is the quirky, scatterbrained protagonist. A third nephew, Jonathan (Adam Shelton), leaves home when he enters troubled teenagerdom. Drama ensues when Jonathan returns home 20 years later — more twisted and disturbing than ever. Bodies soon double, and it’s up to Mortimer to straighten everything out.
Senior director Doug Devor, who also directed Lost Flamingo Company’s “Wait Until Dark” last fall, said he saw "Arsenic and Old Lace" in high school and liked it. Devor often chooses to be a part of Lost Flamingo Company's dark plays.
The story has an very serious, eerie tone, but Devor said “it’s appealing because it’s funny."
"Jonathan is really scary, but he’s countered by Kevin’s character, Mortimer,” he said.
Senior Kevin Meyer, a Lost Flamingo veteran, said Mortimer is the most difficult character he has ever had to portray.
"It’s sometimes hard to tell when I’m too over-the-top,” Meyer said.
Every character is over-the-top, however. In a house where murderous old ladies are the status quo, no one is really normal.
“It’s been a challenge working with choppy dialogue and a large cast, but that’s solved by character acting,” Devor said.
Each of the 13 characters is thus distinguishable, from Jonathan’s slithering German sidekick, Dr. Einstein, to Officer O’Hara, who can talk of nothing but the play he’s writing.
“It’s spot-on casting,” Meyer said.
And what a cast it is; 13 actors of various grades and majors make up the cast, where some of them know each other well, and some are making their debut in an LFC production.
“It’s a very young cast, at times,” said stage manager Alex Guthart. “But it’s cool to see how the new talent mixes with veteran talent.”
Guthart is a freshman forensics chemistry major and was a seasoned stage manager at her high school. She was looking for a drama club at the Student Involvement Fair when she saw the Lost Flamingo display.
“Drama? Flamingo? OK,” is what Guthart said she thought to herself that day.
The Lost Flamingo Company is Ohio University’s only student-run theater organization. The company accepts OU students of any major to direct, produce and act in its productions.
“It’s really cool to see non-theater majors who are really good at acting,” Meyer said.
It’s not all acting, either. Meyer is a visual communications major who works with LFC’s poster designs and Web site. Devor acts and directs, and he is also in charge of building LFC sets with Adam Shelton.
“It was a complicated set to build," Devor said. "Aside from building a window, we needed four different entrances and only had one workable door — which we don’t use.”
Add hard-to-find costumes and props like vintage toy soldiers and surgical tools, and it becomes clear that the “Arsenic” crew and cast spent some long nights putting this show together.
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