I am a Sherlock Holmes buff. I’ve read all the stories, seen all the screen versions I could find (including the Russian and the Japanese). So Ms Holmes and Ms Watson is not the first gender-swap version for me.
With thoughts of Lucy Liu, Joanne Woodward, and Margaret Colin as various Watsons, and Enola Holmes as Sherlock’s younger sister, this play by Kate Hamill caught my interest.
It’s billed as a “whip-smart, darkly comic collision of classic mystery and modern mayhem”, and is directed by Sean Turner, former associate director of The Play That Goes Wrong.
Joan Watson (Simona Brown), who may or not be a doctor, arrives at 221B Baker Street to take a room. She has to share the common areas of the house with deeply eccentric Sherlock/Shirley Holmes (Lucy Farrett, who has disconcertingly Bette Davis eyes).
Taking inspiration from a handful of key Conan Doyle stories, notably A Study in Scarlet and A Scandal in Bohemia, the game seems definitely afoot in Ms Holmes and Ms Watson – Apt. 2B.
The first half is rather lively and certainly slapstick, with an exaggerated Mrs Hudson (Alice Lucy) from somewhere vaguely Scottish, and a Lestrade (Tendai Humphrey Sitima) who introduces proceedings out of character.
It’s after the interval that the play starts to drag, with too much Irene Adler (Lucy again) and a definite loss of way. Running at around 2 and a half hours, this property could do with a loving (but firm) trim.
Max Dorey has designed a grimy basement full of books, clutter, and puzzles. It also holds an interesting cupboard that acts as a portal, and a top level that boasts both the famous door and a site for intrigue.
Brown does her best with thin material, but Farrett is stuck with a character that is always ‘on’ and at the extreme. Portrayals of Holmes can sometimes be challenging (yes, Larry Hagman and Peter Cook), but to do something new and different you have to believe in their genius.
This does find the modern mayhem but doesn’t find the ‘classic mystery’. It’s more than it doesn’t need to bring them awkwardly together, or have the wisecracks and the silly sex jokes.
I also have to ask, what is the Apt. 2B about? Where did the other 2 go? And why are we still talking about the pandemic after 5 years, and about Laverne and Shirley at all in a play set in London?
I’m disappointed. I’m giving this 2 stars.
Ms Holmes and Ms Watson continues at Arcola Theatre until 20 Dec – tickets here.
Image credit: Alex Brenner