The famous detective takes centre stage at Cardiff’s New Theatre
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary work has been adapted for the stage by Nick Lane. He brings together a small cast of five, courtesy of Blackeyed Theatre, for a murder mystery featuring the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson. Opening with eerie music and the sounds of a typewriter, the principal characters are first introduced to the audience in a very theatrical fashion by repeating their own significant lines from the show. Initially, the speech was a little quiet and hard to make out which occurred sporadically throughout the rest of the play.
Furthermore, the formal way Sherlock Holmes speaks is somewhat difficult to interpret or at least takes some getting used to for those unfamiliar with Doyle’s work. Portrayed by Luke Barton, Holmes is quite stiff in speech and in movement which adds to the emotionless and calculating exterior of the renowned detective. Barton did a good job of carrying this, along with subtle one-liners and erratic behaviour to show there is some dynamism to the character.
The Baker Street setting is established from the off with a simple, rustic set that is robust throughout each changing scene. Doctor John Watson (Joseph Derrington) is a brilliant character who offers reason, humour and emotion that counteracts his sidekick, with some rare yet tender moments between the two. Doctor Watson is also the voice of narration; his commanding speech guides the viewer throughout the changing timeline with clarity.
Early on, Derrington puts on glasses and assumes another character. This sets a precedent for the two intertwined stories/timelines with the whole cast playing multiple characters throughout. Initially this was a little jarring, especially with the odd shift between British and American accents. That being said, the scenes are clearly defined with the use of lilting music and singing between scene transitions to introduce the audience to the USA story.
The jump back in time to 1800s Pennsylvania occurs for the duration of the play. These segments featuring the Scourers – a criminal syndicate based on the real-life Molly Maguires – were dense and drawn out. Despite some level of intrigue, it took a long time for the plot to come together and for the dual stories to make sense concurrently. There were several twists of which, one was clever and the other, a slightly underwhelming reveal.
Credit however, must be given to the small cast for taking on various roles seamlessly. The aforementioned Luke Barton, doubled up as Scourer Teddy Baldwin and the rest of the cast took on everyone from Detective White Mason and victim John Douglas (Blake Kubena), to suspects and arch nemeses (Gavin Molloy), and Mrs Hudson come Mrs Douglas come Mrs Allen (Alice Osmanski).
The cast adapted excellently to each role with some impressive use of regional accents from Scottish, Irish and the northern drawl of Mrs Hudson, to a Pennsylvanian twang. They were all on point and showed a great level of acting and attention to detail. There were some fleeting moments where slow motion was used to great effect to convey violence during fight sequences and instances of split actions occurring simultaneously or interchangeably which made for clever staging.
All in all, the whole production felt too long and slow, and given the lengthy run time for a straight play, the conclusion was a little disappointing. Despite this, the small humorous quips grew more endearing as the characters became more familiar and the cast performed very well. Perhaps the staging of Sherlock Holmes is for some more than others but no doubt, fans of the work would have been pleased with the adaptation.
