Don't drink the wine

With only a few minor tweaks, “Arsenic and Old Lace”remains just as fresh and entertaining for today’s audiences as it waswhen first performed in 1941, says Brittney Benjamin, director of theLansing Civic Players’ production.

Benjamin wants her take on the dark comedy, about dramacritic Mortimer Brewster, who discovers his family’s murderousinsanity, to be as close to the original as possible.

Benjamin updated some of the awkward, antiquated phrasing of the original and took out many racial epithets common in the era.

The characters themselves, though, were where Benjamin saw the most potential for growth.

For example, the play’s two lovable and murderous aunts,who serve arsenic-laced elderberry wine, are “always together in ascene. They kind of get lumped into that generic old-lady persona andnever get to develop their own personalities.” 

Benjamin spent time differentiating the two similarcharacters, having one be more outgoing and the other more reserved andintroverted.

Mortimer’s fiancée, Elaine, posed another challenge for the director.

“In trying not to portray a flat character, people tendto either play her as very sweet and cute, or really vamped-up sexy,and so we’ve been trying to strive for a balance between the two.”

Benjamin also played around with the show’s villain,Jonathan, in order to better display his “build-up of anger and why hedoes the crazy things he does.”

Benjamin’s goal with modifying the characterizations isto move away from what she sees as a consistent problem with slapstickcomedies like this. The characters can tend to become flat andone-dimensional for the sake of humor, but Benjamin wants the audienceto be able to laugh while still engaging with the characters.

“We’ve been trying for something completely new,” she says.

‘Arsenic and Old Lace’

Lansing Civic Players

Through Oct. 23

Hannah Community Center,  819 Abbot Road,

East Lansing

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23 

$14 adults; $8 students and seniors

(888) 419-5458

www.lansingcivicplayers.org