"Arsenic and Old Lace" and the adaptation theory in multi-modal storytelling, post series introduction

 Introduction

 Biological adaptation theory states that, when an organism finds itself in a new environment, over time, it or its descendants will physically change to better suit the new habitat. It’s my opinion that different adaptations of stories roughly do the same thing, only instead of an organism to a habitat, it’s a story, to not only a different mode of storytelling, but to the time and place it’s being changed in or for.

    A good example of a story with multiple adaptations that vary significantly depending on the version, is Arsenic and Old Lace. One of the longest running plays in Broadway history, it was a phenomenon when it was released in 1941, but written in 1939, and spawned multiple movies and radio adaptations. The synopsis goes as such: The Brewsters are a well-to-do Brooklyn family, made wealthy by a now-dead grandfather doctor, who apparently performed experiments on his patients. While having tea with the local reverend Doctor Harper, aging philanthropists Abby and Martha, and their mentally ill nephew Theodore “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster, discuss their other nephew. A reluctant and thoroughly modern theater critic named Mortimer, who’s dating the reverend’s daughter, Elaine. They also discuss the annoyances of living in the current world war, with Abby making such remarks as “You know, reverend, I’m beginning to think this Hitler fellow isn’t very christian.” The reverend leaves, and Mortimer makes a visit to his brother and aunties on his way to pick up Elaine. While there, Mortimer discovers a dead body. Naturally, he immediately informs his aunts, who tell him not to worry as, “he’s one of our gentlemen!”. As it turns out, the aunts murder old men as a form of charity. Not wanting his aunties to hang, Mortimer devises a solution: he’ll forcibly institutionalize his brother and pin the crimes on him. While there’s a lot to unpack there, it gets worse. While out getting papers signed, who should come home but the third brother, “criminally insane” Jonathan Brewster, accompanied by Herman Einstein, his personal plastic surgeon, who affectionately calls him “Johnny”. Now with two pairs of murderers in the house, it’s up to Mortimer to keep the body count low and his fiancee from knowing.

Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster

    The largest thing to call attention to in the original play, however, is how the American civilian attitude of reluctance towards involvement with the world war at the time, shines through in the comedy. Not much had to be changed when it debuted on Broadway after the U.S. became involved, if anything, it can almost be compared to modern "pre-covid" humor, laughing at the first-world problems that seemed so serious in a simpler time.

In this series of posts, I’ll be going through each adaptation and describing what went into each change and speculating as to why through analyzing the contexts of the era when each was released. This play has always been one of my favorites, and as someone with an interest in both media analysis and history, this project felt like a natural progression. The original play, in both plot and tone, will be used as a control group, as it came first and therefore all the other adaptations will be compared to it.

Bibliography

Kesselring, Joseph. Arsenic and Old Lace. Dramatists Play Service Inc.1941. Page count 96, et al.

    
Blum, John Morton. V was for victory: Politics and American culture during World War II. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1976.