![]() ![]() But it’s really the voice that makes it all come together. It’s a lovely touch for a character that has far more pressing mystery solving things to think about. Papers are simply dropped where he stands and coats are flung to lie wherever they may. Nothing is ever put down in its proper place. Slightly effete yet moving without any grace whatsoever, Johnson’s Sherlock flatfoots it around the stage with the bug-eyed, hair smoothing, face touching tics and twitches of a slightly off kilter genius. One that is subtly modernized for our ear (thanks to Evers adaptation which removes anachronistic language such as the famous elementary line), given full rein to be both laughed at and with (by Scheid’s fine sense of comedic direction) and in glorious oddball form thanks to Johnson’s refreshing portrayal. It is Sherlock we’ve come to see and it’s a marvellous Sherlock we get. Well, if much were to mean the portrayal and staging of the great detective himself. So it is a tremendous accomplishment that there can still be much to enjoy in this production. Really? Risible plot points like this can’t help but put you in mind of bad 1980’s horror films….the house is haunted? Sure, we’ll go in! Helen might not die the moment she lets her murderer into her room, but our belief in any bloodcurdling feeling being elicited by this play perishes on the spot. On the eve of her possible death, Helen willingly lets Roylott into her room for a heated chat. ![]() In fairness to her, the script doesn’t help. If Helen is truly frightened, Fischer does very little outside of delivering the dialogue to show it. Roylott grabs Helen, pushes her and at one point tries to strangle her, but there is such hesitancy in the staging that any feeling of alarm is snuffed out. Instead, Scheid gives us scenes of lukewarm violence where neither actor commits to the moment. Had we been given suspenseful tension we might have cared to find out. Yes, we don’t know exactly how Roylott did and will do it again. We know that Helen is his next target and why. Where’s the mystery? We know that Roylott is the killer right from the get go. Watson (an easy to like Andrew Love) who suggests she employ the notorious Sherlock Homes (a superbly weird and wonderful John Johnston) to save her from certain death.Īnd therein lays the problem. As Helen’s own wedding quickly approaches with her betrothed out-of-town, she turns to her friend Dr. We also learn fairly quickly of some provision wherein Roylott loses his inherited fortune should either of his stepdaughters marry. Helen and her sister Julia have been living with Roylott since their mother’s inexplicable death and as the play opens, we learn that now Julia too has died mysteriously. Roylott (a wonderfully bombastic and caustic James Belcher). The Speckled Band: An Adventure of Sherlock Holmes tells the tale of Helen Stoner (Amelia Fischer) and her controlling, violent-tempered stepfather, Dr. And it doesn’t take a Sherlockian brain to realize that some ill-conceived staging and a flawed storyline is the thing that ultimately murders this play. Evers and directed by Troy Scheid gives us lots of the former and a respectable amount of the latter. Bums in seats is never a bad thing for a company to wish for and accomplish.īut are we there to see a familiar character in a safely formulaic story so that we can all sit back, not work too hard and enjoy? Or are we there to see new life and insights breathed into a character we thought we knew? This version, adapted by Timothy N. From the cross-section of folks cramming the theatre opening night, it seems like we’re still hungy for more of the famous detective’s deducing. So it’s no surprise that the Classical Theatre Company would want to bring a version of your tale to the stage. ![]() Between being given new big screen life thanks to the highest paid actor in Hollywood (box office magic, Robert Downey Jr.) and your present small screen triumphs (Jonny Lee Miller’s version on CBS and Benedict Cumberbatch’s fan favorite turn on BBC) you really are in vogue these days.
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