Arsenic & Old Lace, a 1941 black comedy written by Joseph Kesselring, is set in an old Victorian-style house in Brooklyn in the 1940’s.

Mortimer Brewster, a prominent film critic, is engaged to be married to the Reverend’s daughter.

Mortimer has two kindly, old spinster aunts and a harmlessly insane brother who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt. There is also Mortimer's estranged brother who has psychopathic tendencies. It’s safe to say madness runs in this family.

Things take a dark turn as he discovers that his sweet, unassuming aunts really aren’t as innocent as they first appear and chaos ensues as Mortimer confronts the thorns of the Brewster family tree.