Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. Half stars fall between the ratings
Left to right: Simon (Rod Bissett), Felix (Sam
Evans), Daria (Liz Webster), Aggie (Leanne Brown), Martha (Julie Lomas,
Madge (Lorraine Samantha Allen) and William Gillette (Rob Meehan).
Holmes for the holidays
The Grange Players
The Grange Playhoue, Walsall
****
NOW, before we start, I can’t see
anything funny about the murder – twice – of a theatre critic, but the
audience certainly did in this romp of a comedy murder mystery.
The year is 1936, and
the play opens as theatre star William Gillette, played by Robert
Meehan, takes a bow at the end of his long running and immensely
profitable self-penned play Sherlock
Holmes, only to be shot by a would-be
assassin.
Luckily it is only a flesh wound, a close shave
for Gillette one might say (close shave? . . . Gillette? . . . all
right, please yourself) and, recovering, he invites his fellow cast
members to his newly built Connecticut Castle to spend Christmas with
him and his mother, Martha, played by Julie Lomas.
There is the fun-loving, bear-like Felix Gisel,
played by Sam Evans, and his wife Madge, played by Lorraine Samantha
Allen, along with newly-weds Simon and Aggie, played by Rod Bissett and
Leanne Brown, a couple who have yet to announce their union.
But Gillette has a hidden agenda. Not
unreasonably he would quite like to know who is trying to do him in
before the show reopens, particularly as he suspects one of the cast.
So, like his stage character of Sherlock Holmes,
he is conducting his own investigation. Elementary, isn’t it. And as
part of that, he has invited along vitriolic theatre critic and
columnist Daria Chase, sultry, sexy and sharp-tongued in the shape of
Liz Webster in a wonderfully bitchy performance.
She has written scathing reviews of all the cast,
such as likening Felix to a lump of beef in one performance and casting
aspersions on Simon’s . . . should we say, ability to suitably fill a
swimming costume, in another.
So her arrival is as welcome as root canal work.
There are not just the rapier-like reviews to worry about though; Daria
has a reputation for . . . how should we put this . . . reviewing
horizontally, so to speak, and has had private performances from at least
one of the assembled guests.
Now as this is a comedy murder mystery somebody
has to die . . .
Sorry, but those, are the rules . . .
. . . preferably at a suitable point at the end
of act one so the audience can discuss likely suspects in the bar during
the interval, after seeing the corpse scramble off stage in the darkness
first of course.
Suitable refreshed after the interval, Gillette
starts to inform the police of the killing, until, upon discovering the
culprit, he dismisses the call. But US police forces of 1936 New England
were nothing if not thorough – and equal opportunity employers it
appears – so tweed clad Inspector no nonsense Goring turns up, in
the shape of Suzy Donnelly.
Which leads to a sort of game of musical cadaver
with a corpse which can’t make up its mind as to whether it is dead or
not, an epiphany from Felix, a revelation of the murderer, and, for good
measure, another murderer, and the murderer we first thought of and yet
another to finish it off.
Do keep up at the back.
American Ken Ludwig’s 2011 play won the 2012
Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Play and
rattles along at a fair old pace. Evans and Meehan create a fine double
act, aided by Webster, who plays it dead straight, shall we say, in a
series of splendidly funny scenes in the second act.
The trio almost steal the show with scenes of
wonderful black slapstick as Donnelly, a model of efficiency, is left
floundering as she carries on meticulously sleuthing around them.
William Gillette in the eponymous
role in his play Sherlock Holmes
Then, as the investigation heads in new
directions, Gillette dons deerstalker, Inverness cape coat and curved
briar pipe to become Sherlock Holmes – he really should up the
medication – and starts to conduct his own enquiries.
Meandering about in the background is Lomas’s
delightfully dotty Martha, dottier still after taking her sleeping
pills, Leanne Brown’s emotionally fragile Aggie, who wouldn’t hurt a fly
- look out if you are not a fly though - and Lorraine Samantha Allen’s
bristly Madge. Remember that thing about woman scorned? She packs a
great right hook.
There is not a weak character in sight and this
is a real cracker of a production which is a satisfying mix of laugh out
loud comedy, with some genuine belly laughs, allied to a mystery with a
clever plot to keep you guessing. There is even a moment of supernatural
terror to keep you on your toes.
Accents can be hit and miss when plays are set in
America but while Americans might cringe, as we do at their attempts at
the Queen’s English, they were inoffensive to a Midland ear, and, just
as important, they were consistent, so you quickly stopped even noticing
them.
Director Chris Waters keeps everything on track
keeping up a good pace, which is needed with a running time a shade
under two-and-a-half hours, which means time just flies by, all aided by
some good writing. The first act sets the scene succinctly, with no
fuss, telling you all you need to know with laughs along the way, then
the pace picks up in a second half which is almost Agatha Christie does
farce. Wonderful stuff.
Costumes look authentic, which all helps set the
scene and a mention too for the superb set from All Round Property
Services and Rod Bissett which sets the tone of the whole production.
Stan Vigurs and Colin Mears deserve a mention too
for lighting and sound. Many productions have lights on, lights off,
interval, same again, end, with sound little more than can you hear OK
at the back?
Here there are plenty of cues to deal with in a
house full of gadgets, amid a storm, thunder, lightning, flickering
power supplies as well as an excited dog, and everything appeared to be
spot on.
The result is a most satisfying and entertaining
evening of whodunit with laughs. We all need a laugh sometimes, just a
pity it was at the expense of a theatre critic . . . To 21-01-17
Roger Clarke
This is the first
feature film adapting Sherlock Holmes to the screen, starring William
Gillette, who was a real person. Long believed lost, it was restored in
2014-15 from a nitrate copy found in the Cinémathèque
Française. The full version can be
seen
HERE
William Hooker Gillette, who died in 1937, aged
87, is credited with creating the popular personae
of Sherlock Holmes with his long, elaborate dressing gown, deerstalker,
caped coat and curved pipe, allegedly so he could speak his lines with
his pipe in his mouth.
His play, Sherlock Holmes, sanctioned
by Arthur Conan Doyle, ran for some 30 years with Gillette playing the
Baker Street detective more than 1,300 times. His home, Gillette Castle
in Hadlyme, Connecticut, is now one of the top tourist attractions in
the state. There is no record of any attempt upon his life, nor of his
having been shot.
dead straight, shall we say, in a
series of splendidly funny scenes in the second act.