Scenic Design Statement

Scenic Design Statement

It is Brooklyn, New York, 1941. WWII has encroached upon life even though the US has not officially joined the war effort. Electricity is now standard fare in most homes, automobiles are available to most everyone and families are, for the first time, beginning to live distances from one another. Life is speeding up for everyone everywhere except in the house of Abby and Martha Brewser, sisters who live in the family house they’ve been in since their 1890’s childhood. They value the close families, quiet lifestyles, and neighborliness of their youth and do their best to help others enjoy the same ideals.

The play needs to serve the actions of the plot events: Mortimer discovers a dead body in his sweet, elderly aunt’s window seat; his long lost evil brother shows up and almost kills him (he succeeds in tying him up and setting up his instruments of torture before he is interrupted by the neighborhood police); in an effort to keep his aunts out of jail while putting an end to their killing spree he gets them to commit themselves to an asylum.

When the audience looks at the set for Arsenic they will see, at first glance a cozy, warm and sweet Victorian dining/living room. Most all of the exposed wall space is covered with slightly exotic looking, ornately framed family portraits in a variety of sizes and shapes and colors from sepia to black and white to muted, soft colors. Frames, while ornamental, are almost all natural dark, warm woods. Walls are papered with a rosy, burgundy background and soft, golden fleur de lis or similar pattern. There is a large area rug in similar tones under the Duncan Phyfe dining table. On the walls where there are no portraits, are wall sconces with electrified candles. All windows are covered with light-filtering lace or sheer curtains covered by weightier, rich curtains in heavy textured fabric – with tasseled tieback cords.

On closer look, we see some of the nostalgic, sweet pieces are actually rather grotesque period curios – small stuffed animals disguised as planters, card holders, decorations, etc.. Also, there should be some larger grotesques that are not evident at first glance. Perhaps the hat rack is made of antlers, the base of the small table is a small bear or part of a large mammal, or there are ivory carvings used for napkin rings or such. These are reflective of both the Victorian taste, the Brewster history of “cadavers lying around,” Teddy’s interest in hunting, and the death theme of the plot itself. Putting these things into the sweetness and protectiveness and peacefulness of the overall setting helps to compliment the idea of the selflessness of Abby and Martha as they murder lonely old men, Teddy as he acts as a conservationist and a big-game hunter (who digs graves and buries his aunts dead bodies!)

The set facilitates the action. The six-foot by three-foot window seat accommodates the bodies that are stored there. Above the window seat, the two panels of the window open to the outside to help Jon and Einstein enter with their body. Downstage center the dining table keeps the torture scene between Jon and Mortimer in easy view of the audience. Teddy’s cellar door is opposite the kitchen door and opens in to facilitate his carrying the body and Einstein’s forcing Elaine down.  The kitchen door, also under the second floor hallway, opens on a two-way spring hinge to help the aunts carry dishes back and forth and to speed up O’Hara’s “sandwich” entrance.  In an angled wall DR the front door allows clear sightlines and the stairway platform SL gives Teddy a staging area to prep for his charges up San Juan Hill (also, putting it on this side of the stage assures the right-handed actor can face out while charging). Even the layout of the windowed walls –almost directly across from each other – shows how the outside world is encroaching upon and surrounding the “vanishing species” of the Brewsters.