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| Jane Ridley, Laurent Giroux, Mary Martello and Dan Olmstead Photo by J. Urdaneta Photography |
Sometimes going to the theater can
be just plain fun. That’s how I felt about the Walnut Street Theatre's
production of Arsenic and Old Lace. A lot of familiar Philadelphia
actors (Mary Martello and Jane Ridley as the Brewster sisters, Ben Dibble as
Teddy Brewster, Damon Bonetti and Jennie Eisenhower as Mortimer Brewster and
Elaine Harper, Peter Schmitz in two character roles)—I’ve only been here a
little over a year and most were already familiar to me, along with a well-crafted
script, resulted in a delightful farce—and I’m not one who uses adjectives like
that lightly.
As the two elderly Brewster sisters,
Martello and Ridley were alternately batty and serious, competent and absurd.
In my quest to find satisfying roles for mature performers—more on that at
another time—it’s nice to see that material does exist for them in which they
are not distraught, alcoholic, or verging on dementia—although some may
question the sanity of these two ladies, it’s more their thought processes that
are in question, not their ability to think.
