BROOKLYN, New York, 1941 . . . a lonely man raps on the door to the Brewster house and finds himself whisked inside for tea by two kindly, church-goin’ sisters.

Don’t be fooled, boys and girls.

Lurking in Abby and Martha’s elderberry wine is the bitter taste of almonds, and, in their cellar, a stack of bodies.

Taunton Thespians’ winter show, Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring, is a dark, dark comedy, simmering with heat and energy by always being in the danger zone.

Abby and Martha’s brother, ‘Colonel Teddy’, thinks he’s Franklin D. Roosevelt, sounding his bugle at the midnight hour and resolutely digging in ‘Panama’.

Outlawed Jonathan Brewster is a walking metamorphosis of the old into new to gruesome, ghoulish effect, flanked by his phoney plastic surgeon, Dr Herman Einstein.

As people drop like flies, why does Mortimer Brewster stick out like a sore thumb against the farce?

The sisters’ sing-song delivery, sunny dispositions and seeming obliviousness to the one hell of an ethical conundrum they’ve hewn for themselves, are the straight men in this crafty, sharp-edged play.

You’ll find free-flowing scenes, classy Brooklyn drawls, great physicality and use of space at this Tacchi-Morris Taunton show.

“I hope the play is something you’ll enjoy,” says the character Abby Brewster.

With the Thespians it’s a dead cert.

Arsenic and Old Lace runs until Saturday and tickets cost £10/£3.