Critic's Pick
When he published his first Sherlock Holmes story in 1886, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle probably didn’t know he had created a character that would still thrive 128 years later. The last of his 56 short stories and four novels was published in 1927. By then the international appeal of the deductive detective was evident. Now it’s 2014 and the guy in the deerstalker cap, puffing on his meerschaum pipe or playing his violin, still captures our fancy.Over the past century, there have been no fewer than 20 film, television and radio versions of the mysteries solved by the brilliant if anti-social Holmes and his comrade Dr. John Watson. Legendary actor John Barrymore took on the role in a silent movie in 1922; numerous others have followed suit from Basil Rathbone to Michael Caine. British actor Jeremy Brett played Holmes in four series for British television (1984 -1994), encompassing 36 episodes and five specials. Others have used Holmes as a starting point for tales unimagined by Conan Doyle never, such as Young Sherlock Holmes, a 1985 film about Holmes and Watson as teenagers.
Interest during the 21st century has continued unabated: Robert Downey Jr. portrayed him heroically in 2009 with Jude Law as Dr. Watson. Benedict Cumberbatch with Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit) as Watson has built an immense fan base as a very sardonic Sherlock at work in the 21st century in updated cases of the familiar tales; it’s aired on BBC in the U.K. and PBS here in the States. For a very contemporary take — as much a procedural crime drama as tales of mystery — CBS-TV has offered Elementary since 2010 featuring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as “Dr. Joan Watson.” This series has invented many new, contemporary tales, but it still hearkens back to Holmes as an oddball and Watson as a sensible voice of reason.
That brings us to right now, at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, opening its 2014-2015 season with Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club. (It opened last week and runs through Oct. 4.) If you devoured these stories as I did when I was a teenager, you might wonder about this title — it’s a new one. Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, in fact, inserted Holmes and Watson into a set of stories from 1878 by Robert Louis Stevenson. Hatcher advanced the tale to 1914 to the brink of World War I — international political intrigue is a background element of the crime story — but he has been thoroughly faithful to the familiar characters.
I believe Hatcher’s script and the Playhouse’s production will satisfy fans of Holmes, but a much broader audience will appreciate the show’s theatrical production. Blake Robison, the Playhouse’s artistic director, is eager to present family-friendly shows, and this one qualifies, although the complex plot is more than elementary-age kids will be able to follow.
The production uses swift, cinematic scene changes, enhanced by projections (designed by Alex Koch) of sensational newspaper pages and architectural aspects of scenes from London. These work perfectly with Wilson Chin’s bi-level set and Thomas C. Hase’s atmospheric lighting.
But it’s truly Steven Hauck’s portrait of Holmes that elevates this show. We meet him in a trough of depression; perhaps over the state of world affairs, perhaps evoked by a fear of losing his intellectual edge. He has concluded that suicide is the only answer. Before long, he involves himself in a “club” that takes a unique approach to “suicide by second party,” drawing colored billiard balls from a top hat to determine the victim and the executioner. From start to finish, Hauck plays Holmes with authentically quirky physicality — tossing his body despondently onto his fainting couch more than once, taking on various disguises and physical postures as someone quite different. He perfectly captures Holmes’ dry wit, short temper and sharp tongue. Douglas Rees provides narration and plays Dr. Watson predictably, bumbling and a tad confused, but full of good intentions, even when he disrupts Holmes’ efforts to solve what’s actually going on. Tonya Beckman brings a studied tongue-in-cheek, choreographed delivery to the role of “Club Secretary,” the sexy tuxedoed character who guides club members through their arcane selection process.
It would be wrong to reveal more about the story, because being surprised is so much of the fun. But I can say with calm assurance that you’re likely to deduce that this is a very entertaining show. It’s no mystery that I award it a Critic’s Pick.
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