Sherlock Holmes & the Rudolph Mysteries

Sherlock Holmes and the Rudolph Mystery

Writtle Cards

Friday 2nd December

Directed by Barbara Llewellyn

Produced by Katharine Thomas

 

 

Writtle Village Hall on Friday evening was packed out with an excited audience eagerly anticipating Writtle Cards' 'Sherlock Holmes and the Rudolph Mystery', penned by Jerry Thomas. Thomas also wrote the accompanying songs with talented duo Neil Hamblin and Stephen Burge, who opened  the performance with an uplifting and well performed piece of music on the keyboard and recorder (much to my envy, as I could never produce more than a terrible rendition of three blind mice!)

The set backdrop was a skilfully drawn scene of London inspired by the Victorian artist Gustave Dore, which gave the stage great depth.

The drawing room of 221b Baker Street was very economised on furniture with painted wall lights, vases and bookcases. The little furniture within the room (coat hooks, wonderful chair and tables) was all it needed to bring the illusion together. For there were a lot of scene changes to come for our tour of Edwardian London!

Sherlock Holmes played ably by Tracy Willmott was every bit of what you would expect. Self assured, knowledgeable and forthright, she insured the tomfoolery of the characters did not delay the pace of the production. It is always quite difficult to play the straight part among a cast of melodramatic characterisations and she held her own very well.

Forever loyal sidekick Dr John Watson was played by the unstoppable Jerry Thomas, who was his jovial and flamboyant performance gave us plenty of laughs and some brilliant vocal performances in his well written songs. Thomas had great stage presence and brought plenty of energy to every scene.

Long-suffering Mrs Hudson played by Liz Curley was hilarious. Surly, heavy footed and with her own trademark walk, she make the absolute most of her stage time and made me smile whenever she was on stage.

A clever solution to the many set changes was the use of cab rides, with an ingenious prop set at the front of the stage with the curtains drawn and Andy Grant playing a Cabbie. The exchanges between Holmes Watson and the cabbie were amusing small skits, as well as Clare Williams on the auditorium floor as the paper boy keeping the audience in check with the story's progression. To overcome the many locations, beautifully illustrated wooden signs and an adaptable table was used as a nod towards the decor within the scene, for example this was transformed into a pie shop counter with white and green tiles, or a toy shelf crammed with colourful blocks.

The suffragette women, with their placards and steadfast determination, were accurately reminiscent of the old photos you see in the history books campaigning for their (our!) right to vote. Their opening song, March of The Women, was well sung, although there were a few reassuring glances amongst them. Their confidence grew throughout the show, and we begun to see their individual personalities and stories as the scenes went on. Little did they know of a mole within their tight group, and hiding in plain sight was Medusa Moriarty, only the sister of the notorious Professor Moriarty (dun dun duuuuuun!) disguised as Magnolia Mainstay. Played by Sharon Goodwin, Medusa was the eyes and ears for her evil brother who was hatching a plan to thwart the goodly deeds of Captain Fortescue and his covert reindeer army. With her pocket of poisoned sugared almonds, doing the dirty work for her dear brother, she was the perfect baddie, with a costume akin to a pantomime witch. With her perfect cackle, she was a great accomplice to Moriarty played by Daniel Curley. Dressed all in black with a top hat and black gloves, he was a wonderful evil character casting a shadow over old London Town. Slick lighting changes threw an eerie purple glow over their exchanges and set the mood of the scenes perfectly. With boos and hisses abound, I'm sure some of the younger audience members jumped at his dramatic entrance and shrunk away from him as he walked down the aisle to the stage.

With so many wonderful characters and songs it is difficult to comment on them all, but I must mention Miss Lottie Whalebone played by Paulette Harris. She had us all singing and clapping to You Know How to Tickle My Fancy, delivered in old music hall style and accompanied perfectly once again by the musicians.

Towards the end of the production and to wrap up the unanswered questions I did feel that at there was a lot of crucial information delivered in a short space of time, and if you miss a beat you would lose the thread of the story line. However the chase scene was well choreographed and very funny. It was nice to see Mrs Hudson paired with the steadfast Captain Fortescue (the adaptable Andy Grant), as everyone loves a happy ending!

Costumes by Jan Irving were very well put together. It must have been quite an extensive list of unusual and accurate things to find including several reindeer onesies!

Audience participation was very well managed, with a copy of the lyrics at the back of the programme as we sang the encore together. I felt however that the cast were slightly robbed of the full round of applause the audience wanted to give, and a slightly more organised curtain call would have allowed us to show our appreciation. I did also lose some of the lyrics in a few musical numbers as some of the vocals were overshadowed by the musical accompaniment.

The director Barbara Llewellyn and Producer Katharine Thomas have done a great job bringing this huge cast together, using clever techniques to overcome any technical sticking points, and have brought out a lot of comedy with great timing and allowed the actors to embrace their roles. I felt the cast were having as much fun performing as we were watching them. Thank you for a wonderful evening.

 

Katherine Tokley

 

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