Review: SHERLOCK HOMES: THE HUNT FOR MORIARTY, UK Tour
Blackeyed Theatre’s latest touring play Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty is a bold attempt to combine a number of Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories in what the writer Nick Lane describes as his “Greatest hits” show. They are weaved together to try and create a single narrative. We start with the Adventure of Bruce-Partington plans, concerning the recovery of stolen blueprints for a submarine and the characters, Miss Violet Westbury, Colonel Valentine Walter, and the spy Hugo Oberstein. This seamlessly combines with the Adventure of The Second Stain in which a vital document is stolen from the home of Trelawney-Hope by the spy Louis LaRotiere. The third take is perhaps the most famous, the Adventure of the Final Problem in which Holmes confronts Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. They create the Scoundrels Assembly as a group of international agents of which Irene Adler is featured from a Scandal of Bohemia together with her lover Wilheim Von Ormstein. Of course, Conan Doyle’s central creations of Dr Watson (the narrator of the books and the stage show), Mrs Hudson, the housekeeper, and the rather dumb Inspector Lestrade provide strong links between the individual adventures on stage and the original stories.
It is a great deal to pack into a single play and the running time of nearly two hours forty-five minutes, including intervals, suggests it was rather too much to try and squeeze into one narrative. There is a great deal of exposition by Dr Watson (a very reliable Ben Owora) as you would expect as the storyteller and then some great leaps of understanding as Holmes (a good performance from Mark Knightley, though without the special presence of a Jeremy Brett, Robert Downey Jr, or Benedict Cumberbatch portrayal) announces his deductions from his observations. The role of Mrs Hudson beautifully played, along with all the female characters by Pippa Caddick, has been elevated into an investigative accomplice and she and Holmes disguise themselves as the Aspinalls to escape watching villains. They make a believable trio and work well together and seem to embody the spirit of Conan Doyle creations.
The play begins in the burnt out remains of 221b Baker street as Watson returns from the Reichenbach Falls after the death of Holmes, and the firemen are removing the boxes from the remains and then flashbacks to the beginning of the Adventure of Bruce-Partington plans. Victoria Speering’s interesting stage design is based on that burnt out home but has to double for all the other interior and exterior locations. Each set with a minimum of stage furniture, Holmes study is depicted as an armchair, table and 2 upright chairs. Most other scenes with even less; the Dionysus Club by three upright chairs. It leaves a lot to the imagination. However, Mark Hooper’s video projections do add a great deal to our understanding, elegantly projected on the back wall and showing various clues in detail to assist our understanding and then creating a waterfall effect for the Final Problem. There is also an interesting music and sound effect underscore to create tension and assist in the settings , although occasionally the sound levels drowned out the spoken word.
The fourteen male characters, Government Ministers, spies and criminals are played by three actors, Robbie Capaldi, Elliot Giualarocca and Gavin Molloy, and they do well to create the different persona, although occasionally the costumes are so similar it takes a moment to realise that they are a different person. However, it is Pippa Caddick who stands out in every scene as the distressed Violet Westbury, the mysterious and seductive Irene Adler and the wealthy Hilda Trelawney-Hope. She absolutely delights in her sword fight as Adler which is very well choreographed by Rob Myles (as is the final battle between Holmes and Moriarty).
This is designed as touring production on a touring budget, and it certainly engaged the full house at the Theatre Royal Windsor drawn to the theatre by Sherlock Holmes name. We are not sure everyone, like us, would have followed every twist and turn in the narrative. The play certainly honoured the original author’s creation, and the six actors work very hard and largely effectively to get the story across, but we felt it would have benefited by being thirty minutes shorter and dropping one of the Adventures to make it a cleaner and less complex mashup of characters. But if you are fan of the stories, we think you will enjoy this theatrical portrayal.
*** Three Stars
Reviewed by Nick Wayne
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