Meet the Brewsters, who even by American standards are odd a family so dysfunctional they manage to make The Simpsons look normal.

Movie buffs will know the Brewsters from the black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace, Frank Capra's 1944 movie, but now the stage adaptation is coming to Richmond Theatre.

The year is 1941 and the location is a small house next to a cemetery in Brooklyn.

In this house live two kind, thoughtful, sweet old ladies, Martha and Abby Brewster who have developed a very bad habit. It appears they murder lonely old men.

They then leave it to their bugle-blowing nephew Teddy (who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt) to take them to the Panama Canal (the cellar) and bury them. In this instance, the poor fellow' suffers from yellow fever found in the window seat.

It is another of their nephews Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic, who returns home only to find the man in the seat by mistake. Another nephew, Jonathan, returns to the home after years of fleeing the authorities due to his "unofficial practice" of killing people and using their faces to change his.

Confused? Well even Brigit Forsyth who is playing Martha Brewster admits the plot does get complicated, but during rehearsals she had weightier matters on her mind.

"We are going to have to try and behave when we are onstage. This is such a funny piece we all keep giggling when we should be rehearsing and taking it seriously. I just hope we don't start laughing on stage," says Brigit.

Having played a nagging wife in The Likely Lads, Brigit now finds herself playing what she describes as a twittering old woman.

"Martha is the twitterer of the sisters unlike Abby who is quite a strong character and full of ideas. Martha just wants to keep on killing people after all it is what they are good at and occasionally she has some good ideas as well. She is a wonderful character to play and it is so much fun."

Brigit has now been in the business for almost 45 years and is still intoxicated with the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the crowd.

"I still cannot get over the fact that I get paid for pretending to be someone else, and I think the reason I have had such a long career is because I enjoy all aspects of the job. Whether it is radio, TV or stage, I still enjoy doing it. I have just recorded some episodes of the Radio 4 series King Street, which is set in a school, and has been going for years, and I am going to be in an episode of the TV series Down To Earth which is being shown in February."

Arsenic and Old Lace is a fiendishly funny play and is currently on at Richmond Theatre. For bookings call 0870 060 6651.