Coincidence or a cunning plot? Two new Sherlock Holmes stories premiere within days of one another. Both connect Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective with the present day. Both explore ideas around the manipulation of truth.
Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Fiend is a new, reality-disrupting “comedy adventure” by Toby Hulse and Ross Smith. It’s 1888. Women are being horribly murdered in London’s Whitechapel district. The cast, speaking as a chorus, introduce the action: the press have labelled the unknown killer “a monster” and so transformed an individual into an object of lurid speculation – one that boosts newspaper sales. By analogy with the adage “it takes a thief to catch a thief”, they tell us, a fiction is called upon to catch this fiction: this is a case for Sherlock Holmes.
The tone is humorous, but the playfully disguised intent is serious. Distinctions between truth and disinformation are explored through explicit deconstruction of theatrical devices: the great detective’s deduction-led progress is punctuated by cartoon slogans and by discourses delivered from the sidelines by present-day Holmes specialists; fourth-wall conventions are simultaneously observed and broken by characters playing together in the same scene. Holmes, Watson, Mrs Hudson and Inspector Lestrade – plus various others – are played interchangeably by the four-strong company, costume-changing at lightning speed.
By comically exposing the workings of the drama, the production also lays bare more serious issues of the working of society – in particular, the malaise of misinformation (newspapers get a bashing, also academia and the tourist industry). Sounds too clever by half? It almost is. To-ing and fro-ing between framing situations and complex storyline can become confusing. However, award-winning director Adam Meggido (his credits include West End hits Magic Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong) keeps the action sprightly. If pacing and tempo slackened at times on press night, they will doubtless tighten up in the course of the run. Flaws of overcomplexity are mitigated by the sheer verve and fun of the piece.
Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood, a co-production between the Watermill and Metta Theatre, is written and directed by P Burton-Morgan, with music by Ben Glasston, who is also co-lyricist. The action, set in the present day, takes the form of a rock musical, with eight accomplished actor-musicians. Holmes (Dylan Wood) is both celebrated detective and electric-guitar playing youth, obsessed by his mother and her negative effect on his eating patterns. Nutritionist Dr Amanda Watson (Me’sha Bryan) runs Sherlock’s social media accounts and all the practical aspects of his life (laundry, food, bins), while also bringing up her family of three.
An approach by Yorri, a mother-dominated “hippy” protesting at big-pharma experimentation in a wood (EM Williams), leads Holmes to battle once more with his arch enemy: nature-attacking, mother-resenting Jan Moriarty (Gillian Kirkpatrick). The forces of social media are unleashed. A maligned Holmes becomes a target for trolls; Watson’s children receive death threats. Tables are turned and the same trolls praise Holmes as “the one”.
Interesting ideas, here, struggle for attention. Focus on characters’ personal issues disrupts the dynamics of the saving-the-world adventure story, the narrative demands of which hustle along the individuals’ journeys towards self-understanding, making it difficult for us to engage with them emotionally. Glasston’s rocking music has a similarly fractured quality, in spite of at least one hummable chorus (Elementary) and affecting ballads from Yorri (Flower) and Watson (Care). Case closed? More a work in progress, worth developing, but on press night a bumpy ride.
Star ratings (out of five)
Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Fiend ★★★
Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood ★★
Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Fiend is at the Barn theatre, Cirencester, until 9 March
Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood is at the Watermill theatre, Newbury, until 16 March
