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Southwark Playhouse, London, until April 13
Theatre Royal, Bath, April 16-20
Producer: Blackeyed Theatre, in association with South Hill Park arts Centre
Adapted by Nick Lane from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Director: Nick Lane
Music composed by Tristan Parkes
Cast: Bobby Bradley, Joseph Derrington, Billy Irving/Blake Kubena, Gavin Molloy and Alice Osmanski
Running Time Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes (including interval)
Blackeyed Theatre stands out in the world of low-budget drama for its survival skills and is marking its 20th anniversary with one of the well-crafted literary adaptations that has sustained it.
Classic subject-matter is matched by the modern reality of almost no funding for the arts, which means a pared back cast of five tackles all the complexity of Conan Doyle’s fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel that is as clever, contrived and satisfying as a cryptic crossword.
For the world’s many Holmes fans, director/adaptor Nick Lane manages to retain the right ingredients: a studded leather armchair in which the great detective can think, phrases such as “the game’s afoot” and the atmosphere of Victorian England, when trains could be relied upon and the public were served by a second postal delivery.
Then, as now, civilisation’s cosiness is bounded by a menacing periphery, and we rattle and chug across the Atlantic to the wilds of pioneering America, where anarchy is stronger than law.
As cogs turn within wheels within wheels, Bobby Bradley as the imperious Holmes, is offset by bumbling and not-so-bumbling detectives, played by Billy Irving.
One of them, like Holmes, is ultimately the victim of Moriarty, played by Gavin Molloy, who daringly bears a passing resemblance to hard-act-to-follow Andrew Scott.
Scott had the luxury in the BBC version of being focused on one role.
Molloy is also the sinister Bodymaster McGinty as this production gives a grimly realistic insight into the terrorist tactics of a gang that stopped at nothing to maintain power in Pennsylvania’s coalfields and to exact revenge when thwarted.
All five members of this cast have the challenge of extensive doubling, but, under Lane’s direction, the necessity becomes a virtue.
Alice Osmanski, taken for granted as Mrs Hudson, also gets to wield a shotgun and play the haughty widow, while Holmes’ intellectual superiority is subverted as Bradley assumes the role of the murderous thug Teddy Baldwin.
As well as alerting us to the outer darkness, Lane also draws out the humour and poignancy of the Holmes-Watson pairing, with Joseph Derrington as the amiable, peanut-brittle-eating, snoring, limping, long-suffering and ultimately appreciated Watson.
Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear
Southwark Playhouse, London, until April 13
Theatre Royal, Bath, April 16-20
Producer: Blackeyed Theatre, in association with South Hill Park arts Centre
Adapted by Nick Lane from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Director: Nick Lane
Music composed by Tristan Parkes
Cast: Bobby Bradley, Joseph Derrington, Billy Irving/Blake Kubena, Gavin Molloy and Alice Osmanski
Running Time Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes (including interval)
Blackeyed Theatre stands out in the world of low-budget drama for its survival skills and is marking its 20th anniversary with one of the well-crafted literary adaptations that has sustained it.
Classic subject-matter is matched by the modern reality of almost no funding for the arts, which means a pared back cast of five tackles all the complexity of Conan Doyle’s fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel that is as clever, contrived and satisfying as a cryptic crossword.
For the world’s many Holmes fans, director/adaptor Nick Lane manages to retain the right ingredients: a studded leather armchair in which the great detective can think, phrases such as “the game’s afoot” and the atmosphere of Victorian England, when trains could be relied upon and the public were served by a second postal delivery.
Then, as now, civilisation’s cosiness is bounded by a menacing periphery, and we rattle and chug across the Atlantic to the wilds of pioneering America, where anarchy is stronger than law.
As cogs turn within wheels within wheels, Bobby Bradley as the imperious Holmes, is offset by bumbling and not-so-bumbling detectives, played by Billy Irving.
One of them, like Holmes, is ultimately the victim of Moriarty, played by Gavin Molloy, who daringly bears a passing resemblance to hard-act-to-follow Andrew Scott.
Scott had the luxury in the BBC version of being focused on one role.
Molloy is also the sinister Bodymaster McGinty as this production gives a grimly realistic insight into the terrorist tactics of a gang that stopped at nothing to maintain power in Pennsylvania’s coalfields and to exact revenge when thwarted.
All five members of this cast have the challenge of extensive doubling, but, under Lane’s direction, the necessity becomes a virtue.
Alice Osmanski, taken for granted as Mrs Hudson, also gets to wield a shotgun and play the haughty widow, while Holmes’ intellectual superiority is subverted as Bradley assumes the role of the murderous thug Teddy Baldwin.
As well as alerting us to the outer darkness, Lane also draws out the humour and poignancy of the Holmes-Watson pairing, with Joseph Derrington as the amiable, peanut-brittle-eating, snoring, limping, long-suffering and ultimately appreciated Watson.
Barbara Lewis © 2024.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre