For Mom’s Mother’s Day gift, I had purchased tickets to the final performance of Arsenic and Old Lace playing on the Wurtle Thrust stage at the Guthrie (the “round” stage). I hadn’t been to the new theatre; and I had only been to the old theatre once in high school when I saw As You Like It, also on the round stage. The building is extremely blue, so it isn’t hard to find! It was also cool, because you can see people in the blue walls on the outside (and on the walls and ceilings inside as well). We parked in the structure directly across from the Guthrie, which, crazily enough, only took cash and check, and walked across the street to go into the building. On the way, we noticed that runners were coming in from finishing Minneapolis’s Marathon! Kinda cool!We were about 45 minutes early, so had time to wander around. 
Our first stop was the bathrooms, which were up the escalator. This was NOT your ordinary escalator, but one that was a single long escalator that rose four stories! (You can see mom’s and my reflection in the picture of us going up the escalator.) We got to the top, and went to the restrooms, and then wandered around. I took a few pictures from inside the building looking out at the river when we noticed an outside area that people were standing on that was facing the Mississippi River, so we headed over to go outside and get a better view of the river area. 
It was beautiful outside, and the various bridges over the river were pretty cool to look at. The Guthrie is right at the St. Anthony Falls. One thing that I never knew is that Pillsbury and Gold Medal Flour were directly across the river from each other!
Very cool old buildings are in that area, and many of them are being revitalized. It was beautiful outside, and we hung out for about 15 minutes, and then headed back inside to enter the theatre.
The set for the play was absolutely awesome! It was a two-story interior of an old Victorian house, with the audience viewing the entry/sitting/dining room, with views of a door to the kitchen and a door to the basement, and then stairs up to a balcony with a bedroom door and hallway to another bedroom. On either side of the “house” were views of the cemetery outside. The picture is very dark (no flash), so you can’t see it very well, but it was the best set I’ve ever seen!
The play itself was so well done! The actors were fabulous, and the Brewster sisters were absolutely awesome! I know I laughed more at this play than I ever did at the Cary Grant movie! It was totally worth the money!
After the play, mom and I took some outside pictures of the building, and walked around back, and what did we find? The outside seating area where we had taken our pictures upstairs was a giant “arm” off of the building! Way crazy! We both said that we were glad we didn’t know while we were standing out there!
After we walked around outside for a little while, we headed back towards St. Cloud. We ended up deciding not to eat in the Cities as it was only about 4pm, and neither of us were too terribly hungry. We stopped in Maple Grove, and ate at California Pizza Kitchen…yummy Portobello Mushroom Ravioli in a garlic cream sauce!
Our first stop was the bathrooms, which were up the escalator. This was NOT your ordinary escalator, but one that was a single long escalator that rose four stories! (You can see mom’s and my reflection in the picture of us going up the escalator.) We got to the top, and went to the restrooms, and then wandered around. I took a few pictures from inside the building looking out at the river when we noticed an outside area that people were standing on that was facing the Mississippi River, so we headed over to go outside and get a better view of the river area. 
It was beautiful outside, and the various bridges over the river were pretty cool to look at. The Guthrie is right at the St. Anthony Falls. One thing that I never knew is that Pillsbury and Gold Medal Flour were directly across the river from each other!
Very cool old buildings are in that area, and many of them are being revitalized. It was beautiful outside, and we hung out for about 15 minutes, and then headed back inside to enter the theatre.The set for the play was absolutely awesome! It was a two-story interior of an old Victorian house, with the audience viewing the entry/sitting/dining room, with views of a door to the kitchen and a door to the basement, and then stairs up to a balcony with a bedroom door and hallway to another bedroom. On either side of the “house” were views of the cemetery outside. The picture is very dark (no flash), so you can’t see it very well, but it was the best set I’ve ever seen!
The play itself was so well done! The actors were fabulous, and the Brewster sisters were absolutely awesome! I know I laughed more at this play than I ever did at the Cary Grant movie! It was totally worth the money!
“The play is a farcical black comedy [written by Joseph Kesselring], revolving
around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal
family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims); and a murderous brother who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played by Karloff). The film adaptation follows the same basic plot, with a few minor changes.”
After the play, mom and I took some outside pictures of the building, and walked around back, and what did we find? The outside seating area where we had taken our pictures upstairs was a giant “arm” off of the building! Way crazy! We both said that we were glad we didn’t know while we were standing out there!After we walked around outside for a little while, we headed back towards St. Cloud. We ended up deciding not to eat in the Cities as it was only about 4pm, and neither of us were too terribly hungry. We stopped in Maple Grove, and ate at California Pizza Kitchen…yummy Portobello Mushroom Ravioli in a garlic cream sauce!
