From a silly farce involving old ladies who kill lonely old men and bury to them in their basement, to the tension involved in sorting out a murder case in a room full of jurors, to William Shakespeare's wry look at love, the high school play season is in high gear this weekend and next.

Here's a roundup of what's going on where.

Conestoga Valley: "Arsenic and Old Lace"

Poor Mortimer Brewster. What's he to do when he returns to his childhood home to discover his two spinster aunts have been poisoning lonely old men with arsenic, strychnine and cyanide in their homemade elderberry wine?

Then there's their nephew, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and has been digging graves in the basement, thinking it's the Panama Canal.

Things only get crazier in this 1939 comedy by Joseph Kesselring, which became a popular film starring Cary Grant.

The show runs tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the CVHS auditorium, 2110 Horseshoe Road.

Tickets are $5 and are available at the door. For more information call 419-7875 or go to cvmusical@yahoo.com

Lampeter-Strasburg: "Twelve Angry Men"

A 19 year old man is on trial for fatally stabbing his father. A jury must decide his guilt or innocence.

This production will be staged as theater in the round, so the audience can feel the intense pressure of the jurors, many of whom immediately assume he is guilty. But as the play, written by Reginald Rose, goes on, it become clear that things are more complicated and one juror valiantly works to get the others to see the truth.

Performances are tonight and Saturday at 7 in the high school performing arts center, 1007 Village Road. Tickets are $4. Call 464-3311 or go to www.l-spioneers.org.

NEXT WEEK

Lancaster Mennonite: "Charley's Aunt"

Charley and Jack want to ask their girlfriends, Amy and Kitty, to marry them, but in Victorian England, such things must be done in the presence of a chaperone. Charley's aunt, Donna Lucia, a wealthy widow from Brazil, is coming to England and will make the perfect chaperone.

Except she cancels at the last minute and Charley and Jack decide to ask their friend, Lord Fancourt Babberly, to disguise himself as Donna Lucia. Problem is, Jack's father and Amy's uncle, both hear about the rich widow and come to court her.

This 1892 British farce runs Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19-21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center, 2176 Lincoln Highway East.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students. For more information, call 299-0436 or go to www.lancastermennonite.org.

Ephrata High School: "Fools"

Neil Simon's comic fable is about an obscure village in 19th century Ukraine that's been cursed. Everyone is incredible stupid. A young teacher, Leon, arrives and discovers the source of the curse, Sophia, the doctor's beautiful daughter.

To break the curse, she must either enter into an unhappy marriage or Leon must teach her something in one day. That's a pretty tough order since Sophia has been declared the dumbest of the dumb.

Do we even need to say that Leon falls for Sophia, adding a dash of romance to all the stupidity?

The comedy runs Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20, 21, at Ephrata High School, 803 Oak Blvd., Ephrata.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Call 721-1592 or go to www.easdpa.org.

Donegal High School: "I Remember Mama"

Mama is Marta Hansen, who, along with her husband, Lars, emigrates from Norway to America and raises her four children in a modest home in San Francisco around the turn of the last century. Wise and loving, Marta always seems to know how to deal with her growing kids, her outspoken sisters and her deadbeat tenant who loves great literature.

This funny and heartwarming play, written by John van Druten, will run Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. at Donegal High School, 915 Anderson Ferry Road, Mount Joy.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and students. Call 653-1871.

Hempfield High School; "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Three stories of love, sincere and ridiculous, unfold in Shakespeare's popular comedy.

There are the young lovers forced to flee into the forest, the King and the Queen of the Fairies, who battle each other while casting spells and having spells cast upon them.

And for plenty of comic relief, the amateur acting troupe who've come to rehearse a wedding play and end up being pawns in all the events going on through the night.

This version of the play will be set in the Caribbean and take on a more modern spin.

Performances are Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20, 21, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.

Manheim Township: Radium Girls

Written by Lancaster County native, D. W. Gregory, this is the story of the women who worked an assembly line at the U.S. Radium Corporation in 1917, where they painted watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint poisoned with radiation.

While the owners of the plant and their scientists knew the effects of radiation and kept themselves safe, the women were never told about the dangers and never protected.

Five women — the Radium Girls — sued and eventually won their case, which established the right of individual workers to sue for damaged from corporations due to labor abuse. The case was a media sensation.

Performances are Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19-21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Manheim Township High School auditorium, School Road, off Route 501.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. For information, go to mtpa.mtwp.net.

jholahan@lnpnews.com