Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace is set in the 1940’s Brooklyn, New York. The entire action of the play takes place in the palatial two story, Victorian home of Abby and Martha Brewster, two elderly spinsters who have developed a very bad habit . . .They poison lonely old men and bury their bodies in the cellar. When the sisters are confronted during the play as to why they would do such terrible things they immediately take the defensive calling their actions ‘charity’.