Arsenic and Old Lace

Description

The most famous cult classic of dark humor comes to Zurich. Alice and Martha Brunner, two charming elderly ladies in Zurich Wiedikon, are known for caring for poor, sick, and lonely people. They are the good souls of the Wiedikon neighborhood. It is 1941, and they live with their peculiar nephew Ueli, who considers himself a World War I general, in a large house with a laboratory in the basement. They maintain excellent relations with the Wiedikon pastor, his daughter Helen, and the officers from the nearby police station. Their second nephew Victor often works at night as a theater critic. He is engaged to Helen, which slightly worries the pastor. Things get more complicated when Jonathan, the third nephew, appears with his companion and surgeon Dr. Einstein to hide a corpse in the basement and have his face operated on. This causes some embarrassment for the two old ladies, as they also have some corpses in their basement. An equally macabre and turbulent dance begins with uninvited guests, police officers, the dead, an imaginary general, and poisoned elderberry wine. In 1941, Joseph Kesselring wrote his famous crime comedy "Arsenic and Old Lace" as a play for Broadway. It served as the basis for the film of the same name starring Cary Grant, Peter Lorre, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and others, and has delighted theater audiences for decades. Brilliant dialogues, wildly crazy situational comedy, and a touch of black humor manage to combine a quite profound theme with brilliant entertainment. Starring: Hanna Scheuring/Tonia Maria Zindel, Wanda Wylowa, Dominique Müller, Severin Mauchle, Alexandre Pelichet, Sebastian Krähenbühl, Philippe Nauer, Rafael Luca Oliveira, Gina Markowitsch, and Ingo Ospelt Directed by Niklaus Helbling Stage Alain Rappaport Costumes Luisa Beeli Mask Mirja Germano Music Felix Huber Assistant director Johanna Corti Stage management Gioela Lüchinger Production management Esther Friederich This is an original production of the Bernhard Theater, with kind support from Migros Culture Percentage and the Gönnerverein Club Bernhard.