Arsenic and Old Lace

I’ll admit, I approached *Arsenic and Old Lace* expecting something quaint—a dusty old play trotted out for nostalgia’s sake. Instead, I got a audiobook that had me laughing out loud in public, then glancing around to see if anyone heard me. Kent’s narration is the star: his Mortimer is a perfectly frazzled everyman, and his aunts Abby and Martha sound like the kind of doting relatives you’d *want* to invite over, if not for the whole ‘burying bodies in the cellar’ thing. The real surprise? How well the play’s structure translates to audio. Without visuals, the physical comedy (like Teddy’s charge up the stairs) could fall flat, but Kent’s timing and sound design—subtle creaks, distant thuds—keep it alive. That said, this isn’t a flawless production. The pacing in Act 2 drags slightly during the brothers’ confrontation; what reads as tense on stage feels a beat too long in audio. And while Kent’s Jonathan is deliciously unhinged, his Boris Karloff impression (a nod to the original staging) occasionally veers into caricature. Still, these are minor gripes. The real triumph is how the audiobook preserves the play’s tone—a mix of screwball energy and pitch-black humor that feels shockingly modern. If you love your comedy with a side of arsenic (metaphorically speaking), this is a must-listen. Just maybe don’t play it during dinner.