©Words Matteo Sedazzari
As I entered the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, to watch Sherlock Holmes The Best Kept Secret, (written by Mark Catley and directed by Nikolai Foster) I was immediately mesmerised by the set; sinister, eerie and commanding. An open-plan stage, on the left Holmes’ famous front room cum office at 221 B, a familiar sight to any fans, yet it looks more chaotic than ever. Next to it is a dark and scary street with a street lamp in the far background, not a place you would like to be on your own late at night. On stage right are steps leading to a large door, a brutal place no doubt. I sense that the set designers were influenced by early German Expressionism films, such as the classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). After years of reading, watching films, listening to radio plays on The Consulting Detective, this is my first ever live performance, and like a child waking on Christmas Day, I am excited. Fog sweeps over the set and majestic orchestral sounds start to boom out of speakers as you are drawn into the world of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes The Best Kept Secret is set two years after the World’s Greatest Detective had done battle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, and the play begins with Holmes (Jason Durr; Down Dog, Heartbeat) having cream applied to his back by Watson (Andrew Hall; established stage actor and director, Macbeth, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and TV’s Coronation Street). It is clear that Holmes is a broken man and it soon transpires that the only income he receives is by selling stories to a sleaze hack simply known as The Journalist (Andrew Langtree; Emmerdale and stage productions of Mice and Men, Mamma Mia! (original cast) and Fame). Langtree prances around in his flamboyant suit, with his insincere charm as he will do anything to get an exclusive. He has no morals and he clearly relishes the part as a media scoundrel, as he delivers each line with perfect comedy timing.
Durr is youthful in his looks and energy, yet his perception of Holmes is dark and disturbing. With the recent success of Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr’s take on Holmes, and the true legends before that, Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing (and there are a few more) Durr has made his Holmes raw and vulnerable, a broken man, a truly unique performance. The same goes for Hall’s portrayal of Watson, taking the loyal friend in awe of Holmes to another level, with latent homosexual signals and a Watson who is happy to bend the rules to get justice. I could be wrong but this is the first Watson from television or radio with psychotic and gay tendencies, and it works wonderfully. Yet Holmes’ self-imposed exile is cut short when his brother Mycroft (Adrian Lukis; Peak Practice, Pride and Prejudice, theatre work The Winslow Boy, As You Like It, and who has even acted alongside Jeremy Brett’s Holmes in Granada’s television production The Adventure of the Creeping Man, as Bennett) is arrested for treason, and if found guilty will be hanged. Lukis’s Mycroft is that of the eccentric professor, set in his ways, lacking any social skills. In any Holmes‘ original story or adaptation Mycroft and Holmes have never openly loved each other, and their childhood is rarely discussed which Durr and Lukis do at times, showing a little tenderness towards each other, but to no real degree which baffles Hall’s Watson.
Whilst forced out of retirement, Holmes meets some old associates, Inspector Lestrade (Victor McGuire; Bread, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Good Night Sweetheart), and this Lestrade is an aggressive career focused inspector, savouring the fact that Holmes is down, giving himself a chance to shine, yet he respects Holmes and is willing to help. McGuire is a tour de force as the sometimes perceived feeble policeman. Then “the woman” Irene Adler; (Tanya Franks of EastEnders, Broadchurch) from A Scandal in Bohemia wanders back into his life, one of the few people who ever outwitted Holmes, and the only woman to ever have any romantic connection with him. She states she has changed, only wishes to aid Holmes, and so she does. Franks is certainly spellbinding as the femme fatale, as she can be amiable yet you always sense there is something more sinister behind the smile. With wonderful support from Kerry Peers; (The Bill, Brookside) as the downtrodden but cheerful Londoner Mrs Peasgoode and John Catterall (a rising actor of stage and TV) as Mr Irregular, the silent supporting actor, a nightmarish adventure into a world of mayhem and mistrust begins, a classic gripping Sherlock Holmes yarn and to quote the man himself “the game is afoot”
Anyone who is a Holmes fan will thoroughly enjoy Sherlock Holmes The Best Kept Secret, as it is a fast moving play with clever interacting scene changes, which studies the complex mind of Holmes, illustrated when the detective experiences an opium hallucination and the audience witness Holmes plunged into paranoia as his fear of Lestrade is exposed and his lust for Adler is shown. Scenes like this add wonderful substance to a well executed interpretation of The Consulting Detective and his adventures. The crew and cast have done Conan Doyle proud.
On tour in Manchester until 29th June
Then performing in London’s West End later on in the year
