‘Arsenic & Old Lace’ Kills with Kindness in Cocoa Beach at Surfside Playhouse

Adult tickets to all shows are $25, Senior/Military/Student tickets are $22. Children 12 and under are $10. Tickets are available at the door or through the theatre website at www.SurfsidePlayhouse.com.  For more information about Arsenic and Old Lace, call 321-783-3127.

Elderberry wine, anyone? A true comedy classic, Arsenic and Old Lace opens Friday, January 10 during the 60th Anniversary Season of the Surfside Playhouse in Cocoa Beach. Set in Brooklyn, New York in the 1930’s, the delightful farce follows Mortimer Brewster (played by Edward Johnson), a successful newspaperman who discovers that insanity in his family has taken a murderous turn.  Home to announce his engagement, Mortimer finds his two spinster aunts are murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic. A brother who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt has been digging locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts’ victims); and a maniacal brother who strangely resembles Boris Karloff returns with evil intentions. Mortimer must ward off local police as he attempts to cover up the murders and decide whether to marry his fiancée after all.

Under the direction of Bryan Bergeron, Arsenic and Old Lace will run for three weekends, from January 10 through 26. With plenty of laughs for the whole family, Arsenic and Old Lace is suitable for all ages. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8:00 PM, Sunday matinees are at 2:00 PM.  A special 2:00 PM Saturday matinee has been added on January 25. Adult tickets to all shows are $25, Senior/Military/Student tickets are $22. Children 12 and under are $10. Tickets are available at the door or through the theatre website at www.SurfsidePlayhouse.com. The 250-seat Surfside Playhouse, “Where the Beach Meets the Stage,” is west on South Fifth Street from Highway A1A and located at 301 Ramp Road in Cocoa Beach, at the northwest corner of Brevard Avenue and Ramp Road. For more information about Arsenic and Old Lace, call 321-783-3127.