Light Design Prospectus

Light Prospectus

Arsenic and Old Lace

Huffaker, Red 13

Arsenic and Old Lace takes place in Brooklyn, New York in 1941, just as the US is gearing up to the possibility of diving into WWII. Overall sentiment in the country is still mostly positive, but folks are beginning to feel the effects of war in small ways – a lack of flour and buttercream, nylon and wax. Most people are looking for some relief from the serious intent of these daily reminders of the war effort. Abby and Martha Brewster provide a refuge for all who enter their charming, Victorian home. They live insulated from the outside world and a bit stuck in time from what seems to be their young adult days –the 1880s and 90s.

This script demands several specific light changes. At the top of the show, Abby and Martha light candles as the sun sets outside. When Mortimer enters, he turns on the brighter electric light which must be supported by practical fixtures, which they also turn off to look out the window at Jonathan. When Jonathan and Einstein enter, they should be backlit by stark street lights. There needs to be general area light on the stairs for Teddy’s charge up San Juan Hill, in addition to room light bleeding out whenever the upstairs bedroom doors open. Likewise, whenever the cellar door opens, we should see the light bulb at the top landing – something that will add drama by backlighting Elaine when she escapes from Einstein. Jon and Einstein need matches for their scene with Spenalzo, but it needs to warm up when Elaine enters so the audience can see the action. Throughout the play, someone turns the practicals on and off via the light switches on either end of the stairway. Finally, we have all the windows that either have street light or sunset or sunrise showing through: this needs to be directional depending on the time of day.

The sisters and the minister, when we first see them, encompassed in the warm but directional glow of sunset from outside. As the sisters close the curtains and light the candles, the house takes on a warm, protective glow that Mortimer, upon turning on the electric light, brightens only a bit since the light emanates from the soft, shaded practicals belonging to Abby and Martha. The cellar, being a graveyard, offers a harsher, more shadowy light that streams into the darkness. The backlight from the street must also be stark – so stark that it lights Jon in an unnatural, distorted silhouette – making our first view of him something really horrible.

After nights of storytelling and murderous threatening, the curtains are pulled back to reveal the honest, clean light of morning as the captain enters and everything is straightened out.

Overall, this is a romantic comedy of mistaken identities mixes cues for practical instruments; creepy, dark shadows with backlight silhouettes; and actor-generated candlelight to help the fast-paced general confusion focused on the protective environment inside and the distorted, starkness outside.