Tag Archives: Ron Kurtz

Mental Brothers, Murderous Aunts and 13 Dead Bodies in the Cellar: Normal Family Affairs in “Arsenic and Old Lace”    A single teaspoon of arsenic mixed in wine. Not in tea, as it leaves a suspicious odor, calmly advises sweet old Aunt Martha her astounded nephew Mortimer of her deadly concoction. The quiet inanity of the whole scene provokes laughter. In fact, that belly-hurting amusement is all I can recall from the first time I saw Arsenic and Old Lace, a 1941 play by Joseph Kesselring. I was with a bunch of university friends – all of us cheering for …