"Arsenic" Stages 11-Member Cast
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 1975.
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The story revolves around two old ladies Abby and Martha Brewster. These dear!, sweet! kind! old ladies get up to all sorts of tricks and are extremely competently played by Mary Rees as Abby and Gale Shaw as Martha.
Mary is new to the Island and is going to be a tremendous asset to the Drama Society. Although she has never been a professional actress, she has been acting for many years and in many parts of the world, including Cambridge, Nassau, Ottowa and Bradford. She is a delightful person and says that she is enjoying the part of Abby enormously and hopes that all of the enjoyment will rub off on the audience.
The men in the play she feels are terrifically funny, especially Jim McClure as Jonathan Brewster and Andy Jackson as Dr. Einstein. It is all she can do to keep a straight face when these two are on stage and instead of the play becoming too familiar each rehearsal seems funnier than the last.
She asked us to give Marilyn Barden a special thank you. Marilyn has made both Gale's and her costumes and they really are magnificent, especially their hats which have been very cleverly made out of seemingly nothing.
Marilyn is leaving the Island before the Play runs and will not see the fruits of her labour in action. A heartwarm vote of thanks goes to her from all the members of the Drama Society. Gale, who plays Martha, says that she is having more fun doing this play than any so far. Since arriving in Cayman she has acted in three plays, produced one and has been involved in behind the scenes in virtually all the productions. That is not all, she was Secretary of the Drama Society and is now on the Theatre Building Committee for which she is trying hard to raise funds.
From a family who has always been involved with Theatre and herself as a professional at one time, she is definitely one of the vertebra who form the backbone of the Drama Society here. She says that she hopes all the family will come to this play, it is fun, fast moving and really funny.
Both Mary and Gale are very complimentary about each other and appear to really enjoy working together. The third actress in the play is Jill Knights, who plays Elaine Harper. Elaine is the daughter of Rev. Dr. Harper (played by Arek Joseph) who lives next door to the Brewster family. She is in Jill is enjoying her part and even though at first she found it rather a struggle, she is confident all will be well on opening night. She too finds the men terrifically funny. This play cannot fail to be a really good night's entertainment and we recommend that you go now to the foyer of Barclays Bank and get some tickets, you are going to regret missing this one if you don't.
