The Brewster sisters will play hostess to the public tonight and Saturday night at George Daily Auditorium as Oskaloosa High School thespians perform “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

“It’s a comedy,” OHS Drama Director Jessica Weinreich said Thursday at press night.

The plot centers around Abby and Martha Brewster, a couple of spinster sisters who welcomes single, lonely, elderly men into their home and poisons them as an act of charity. The Brewster’s eccentric family — such as Teddy Brewster, who thinks he’s President Teddy Roosevelt, Jonathan Brewster, who has a homicidal streak as big as the sisters,’ and the rather normal Mortimer Brewster, who has to walk a fine line of sanity throughout the play as he discovers his relatives' proclivities — add more texture to the plot.

There are 14 cast members from Oskaloosa High School for the three-act play by Joseph Kesselring.

The cast members are: Emilia Hodges as Abby Brewster, Kyle Ewing as The Rev. Dr. Harper, Chris North as Teddy Brewster, Kacie Anderson as Officer Brophy, Lyric Morris as Officer Klein, Madison Kelley as Martha Brewster, Natalie McCombs as Elaine Harper, Sheldon VanKooten as Mortimer Brewster, Tim Gibson as Mr. Gibbs, T.J. Smith as Jonathan Brewster, Lex Sparks as Dr. Einstein, Gabe Burns as Officer O’Hara, Katie Akers, as Lt. Rooney and Grant Carriker as Mr. Witherspoon.

This is the first play that Weinreich has directed at Oskaloosa High School.

“I like the story,” she said. “It wasn’t easy and I knew this group could do it.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. both nights and the play begins at 7:30. Tickets are $3 for students, $5 for adults and college students, and activity passes will be accepted.

Herald Editor Duane Nollen can be reached by email at oskynews@oskyherald.com