THE PINOLE COMMUNITY PLAYERS OPENED A CHARMING RENDITION of Joseph Kesselring’s comic “horror” play, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” to a crowded house Friday at their cafe-style venue in old-town Pinole. It’s an odd story full of odd characters, and the Players carry it all off with panache.

The scene is set as white-haired Abby Brewster (Loralee Windsor) chats with the Rev. Dr. Harper (David Weiner) over tea in the small living room of the house she shares with her sister (Susannah Wood as Martha). As their conversation develops, we learn of some strange Brewster family history. It seems the ladies’ late father was a mad-scientist type, offering questionable medical services out of their home.

Within a few short minutes, the aunties are visited by an assortment of neighbors, including the local police, who come by to collect toys for needy children. Abby offers Officer Brophy (Daniel Morgan) some broth for his sick mother, and the reverend remarks what inimitable kindness the ladies have shown him as well.

“If I know what pure kindness and absolute generosity are, it’s because I’ve known the Brewster sisters,” he says.

Once the ladies’ guests takes their leave, however, it becomes apparent that something less angelic may lie beneath the surface of their impeccable hospitality. Abby asks her nephew (Benician Craig Snider as Teddy), who by the way is under the delusion that he is Theodore Roosevelt, to go into the cellar to dig a new lock for the Panama Canal. He does so with gusto, all of which causes Martha to exclaim excitedly to her sister, “Abby! While I was out?”

It seems that the Brewster sisters have recently made an unusual addition to their list of charitable activities: offering lonely, older gentlemen an alternative to their presumably dreary existence. Just a sip from their special homemade elderberry wine sends the poor gents promptly to their maker, whereupon the sisters perform custom graveside services — Baptist, or Methodist? No, dear, this one was Presbyterian! — in their makeshift basement cemetery.

Windsor and Wood are both charming in the roles of the outwardly sweet little old ladies. Marc Gonzalez is strikingly sane as visiting son and drama critic (and effective straight-man) Mortimer, and George Doerr is convincingly creepy as Mortimer’s long-forgotten brother Jonathan, who appears at the home unannounced with a surgically altered face and a murderous Russian sidekick (Bobby Scofield as Dr. Einstein).

Neighbor Elaine (Siobhan O’Brien) is almost as wacky a character as Teddy, clinging to her romantic target Mortimer despite his repeated brush-offs and even after his failure to show concern upon finding that she had been bound and gagged in a crazed scene at his aunts’ house.

A few key players lend special zest to the mostly lively production. Wood is a quiet storm on the stage as fussy and determined Abby, and Windsor is adorable as Martha, especially when she plainly but assuredly describes to her son what it was like having someone die right there in their living room. “Just like old times,” she reminisces. “Grandpa always used to have a cadaver or two around the house.”

Gonzalez is priceless in his stunned reactions to the sisters’ outrageous revelations, and Snider is hilarious as Teddy, the looniest yet in the end most innocent member of the Brewster family. Doerr has the Boris Karloff-referenced aspect of Jonathan’s personality down, which results in some fearfully crazed comic relief. It all adds up to a fun and funny play that is only occasionally bogged down with sleepy execution.

The Pinole Community Playhouse is a cozy venue with an old-fashioned community feel. Originally intended as a memorial center, the building most recently housed the Pinole Senior Center and has been home to the theater company since 1991. I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable theater experience.

Go early, as we did, and enjoy a cozy dinner at the nearby Pinole Creek Café before the show.

If You Go
“Arsenic and Old Lace” continues at the Pinole Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave., Pinole, through June 20. Tickets are $15 to $18 and are available by calling 510-724-6413 or online at www.pinoleplayers.org.

Elizabeth Warnimont is a freelance writer specializing in the performing arts. She is also a substitute teacher for the Benicia Unified School District.