Moriarty

Introduced by a dapper narrator Dr John Watson in a brightly coloured waistcoat with numerous entrances and exits, articulated by moustached Vanessa Perrin brought Ken Ludwig’s witty script of adventure to life. Watson related the story as it unfolded with Holmes’s brilliant deductions, overcoming and outwitting his rival, the notorious Professor Moriarty with a little help along the way.

I do like the cabaret style table seating arrangement to create the atmosphere of an eerie Victorian era spanning London and Europe of intrigue and crime solving.

The numerous scenes were versatile. The moveable library was to become a wall and a waterfall, the rolling window frames that opened became a railway carriage and the addition of a couple of chairs. Turning, excellent quality wooden front doors became a foreign embassy complete with royal crest, all so very clever.

With added sound effects we could visualise exact locations with ease. The whole of the hall, stage and side entrances were utilised by the actors with slick natural movement from Alison and Louis Robinson’s collaboration in directing the characters to the many locations visited. Combat action was also well choreographed and effective.

This certainly was a challenging piece which involved some excellent set design, expert build by Jack Vine and stage management headed by Alan Arthur together with techie team Avaya Ilbery, Holly Hickford and Dave Austen. Symbolic pieces were used with the movement slickly operated. Lighting spots were not always defining the characters, particularly on the opening tense interrogation scene, but good sound effects.

Fifteen named characters – a nice mix of new and familiar regular faces together with some young members, a true community spirit and the performance supported by the village too. A particularly strong and confident performance came from Malcolm Jones as our hero sleuth Sherlock Holmes even though he did not carry a pipe during the action or play the violin. He was ably assisted by sidekick Dr. Watson played by Paula McMullen with a confident brisk gait. Gary Robinson as Toby opened the play on a dark stage with just a stark white chair and a movable ‘box’ for a gruesome interrogation of poor Rupert nicely played by Sarah Woods. Other lovely humorous characters were well cast too with Kirsa Olsen as American actress Irene Adler who had a fling with the Bohemian King desperately wanting to retrieve embarrassing love letters, Sue Johnson was a first class Mrs Barabas, Mac Mercer a stately King Otto with Hilda Klebb his loyal housekeeper played by Gabby Brooks. Mrs Hudson,  long-suffering landlady/housekeeper of the famous 221B Baker Street residence, got herself kidnapped and tied up and was sympathetically played by Elaine Narborough. I enjoyed the two London scallywags – Quinn Ilbery creating a cheeky urchin assisted by Sydney Vine as Cartwright. Laura Laws was the menacing Moriarty and together with the police presence of Lestrade - Fiona Fraser-Pritchard ensuring wrongs were righted with Sue Neame charactering Mrs. Gasner.

The costumes provided were well in keeping for each character of the Victorian era. The A5 silhouetted outline of Holmes on the front cover of the Programme was nicely produced  with easy read contents, including photos of cast members and advertising ‘What’s Next’ including Christmas activities.

An entertaining spoof version of a puzzling tale brought the thrill of danger, certainly some laughter and the great duel of wits. A good watch.

 

 

 

 

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