Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990                   TAG: 9006220757
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`ARSENIC' LIVES ON FOR SHOWTIMERS

The Joseph Kesselring vintage madcap comedy was the first show ever put on by the community theater group. That was 40 years ago and the director was Sam-Robert Good. Good, a Roanoke College emeritus professor of theater and fine arts, is again at the helm. A better example of the kind of theatrical continuity Showtimers has represented over the years is hard to imagine.

Thursday's performance had some opening-night rough edges but it was spirited, well-cast and the performers and the audience seemed tuned in to each other.

At the center of the show are two elderly, well-meaning serial killers who send lonely old men off to a better world with a glass of poisoned elderberry wine.

Playing the gently deranged sisters are Elizabeth Lindsay Neill and Beth Ramos, members of the Patchwork players, forerunners of Showtimers. Their experience, timing and stage savvy are apparent in the assured, comic performances they deliver here.

Living with the twisted sisters are their nephews, Teddy and Mortimer. Played with a cheerful lunacy by William Capps, Teddy is further evidence of the family's faulty genes: he thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. Mortimer is a drama critic but otherwise apparently normal. He's played engagingly by Jeffrey Walker, who has to exhibit continual surprise and exasperation at the goings-on.

A third nephew, played by John Slaski, is a sadistic murderer who returns home with his German cohort (Michael O'Brien) with plans to add further mayhem to the family's activity.

Mortimer's fiance is played with a nice 1940s practical-gal touch by Sonya St. Jacques.

"Arsenic and Old Lace" shows its age sometimes, but Good wisely retained the 1940s setting - it plays better as a period piece than an updated show. In fact it proved to be an enjoyably nostalgic evening for those of us who have attended Showtimers' productions over the year.

The simple set, the assortment of performers (veteran and fledgling), the warm evening with lightning bugs in the air outside and an antic comedy with all the screwball trimmings inside were a testimonial to the four decades of theater the group has provided.

The comedy plays at the McVitty Road Theater through July 1. Call 774-2660.