Auditions for Arsenic and Old Lace
Auditions for Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe’s next production, Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring, will be held on Sunday, 12 April at 2pm at Muritai School, 166 Muritai Road, Eastbourne:
Arsenic and Old Lace is a dark screwball comedy featuring the unhinged, yet delightful Brewster family – sweet as pie spinster aunts who they believe are helping lonely old gents to their reward by serving them poisoned elderberry wine, innocent nephew Teddy, who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt, Mortimer, his brother, the famous soon to be married bachelor and Broadway drama critic, and their other evil brother, Jonathan, who has been mysteriously absent for many years, arrives at the Brewster home on Halloween with his creepy side-kick the ‘plastic surgeon’, Dr Einstein.
Wicked and wonderfully clever, it’s a black comedy that proves that even murder can be hilarious!
Production dates: 25, 26, 27 June & 2, 3, 4 July 2026
Please indicate your interest by emailing auditions.bctt@gmail.com, if you can’t make it that time, but are still interested in auditioning, please let us know, we can arrange an alternate time.
If you would like a copy of the script before-hand, please let us know.
Parts available are:
Mortimer Brewster – male, age 35+, romantic lead, nephew to Martha and Abby. Large role that requires good comic timing
Martha Brewster – female, age 65+, spinster sister to Abby, large comic role. She is the more assertive of the two sisters
Abby Brewster – female, age 65+, spinster sister to Martha (they are both aunts to Mortimer, Jonathan and Teddy), large comic role
Teddy Brewster – male, age 35+, medium/large role, comic and requires a good character actor. He believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, the US President
Jonathan Brewster – male, age35+ – the evil nephew – great comic ‘evil’ character who has returned home to escape the law
The Rev Dr Harper – male, age 60+ – smaller role, father to Elaine and neighbor to the sisters
Elaine Harper – female, age 35+, mid-size role. Romantic lead, fiancé to Mortimer, upbeat and has a certain degree of spunkiness
Dr Einstein – male, age 30+, side kick to Jonathan, a “plastic surgeon” of questionable background, great character role. He has a drinking problem and hails from an undisclosed eastern European country
Officer Brophy – male, age 20+ young, affable new Police officer, who writes plays on the side. Great comic role
Officer Klein – male, age 50+, retiring from the force, teaching Brophy the ropes, smaller role
Mr Witherspoon – male, age 60+, superintendent of Happy Dale sanitarium. A taciturn person, smaller, comic role
Mr Gibbs – male, age 60+ – almost becomes one of the sisters ‘victims’, very small, but funny role.
King Lear – touring to Stratford
Our highly successful King Lear production has been invited to be part of the Stratford (Taranaki) Shakespeare Festival in March. We will be presenting it in the Kings Theatre on Sunday evening 22 March.