SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN HEART
**** (out of 5)
Festival Theatre, 2 hours, 45 minutes, two intermissions. Ends Oct. 13.
By Reginald Candy. Based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Director: Craig Hall.
Penny-Lynn Cookson
Special to The Lake Report
Attention, Sherlockians! This Sherlock Holmes play may not have been penned by Arthur Conan Doyle, but take heart!
This is a cohesive, entertaining, visually and technically superb production directed by Craig Hall, having its world premiere at the Shaw Festival.
Holmes, his friend Dr. John Watson, his landlady Mrs. Hudson and his nemesis Moriarty are lifted from “The Final Problem,” where, in 1893, Conan Doyle chose to kill off Holmes so he could get on with more serious writing.
His readers strongly objected resulting in a canon of 62 Sherlock Holmes stories written over 40 years and numerous adaptations, films and plays including the Shaw’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (2018) and “Sherlock Holmes and The Raven’s Curse” (2021).
The initial mystery was “Who is Reginald Candy?” He is an Australian living near Adelaide whose acting aspirations began with performing Sticky the pickpocket poodle in “Pets, An Operetta.”
Candy moved on to an apprenticeship with the Sydney Theatre Company before deciding that being a playwright with a particular bent for Sherlock Holmes held more appeal.
Central to understanding “Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart” is Conan Doyle’s own background.
Born in Edinburgh (1859-1930), he trained as a physician and his inspirations for Sherlock Holmes were two men with whom he studied.
Dr. Joseph Bell was a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh who had what Conan Doyle described in his autobiography as having “the most remarkable powers of observation.” Sir Henry Littlejohn was chair of medical jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
They provided the link between medical investigation and the detection of crimes that is the hallmark of Sherlock Holmes’s acute observation and power of deduction.
The play opens with Watson, narrator of the life of Holmes, standing before a backdrop suggesting an aerial view of London at night. Our insight to Holmes comes from Watson as they share the flat at 221B Baker St.
Ric Reid is the quintessential Watson: intelligent surgeon, steady, guileless, a Victorian gentleman and devoted friend. The perfect foil for Holmes.
Damien Atkins as Holmes fires on all cylinders with whippet energy, quick speech and movements, a cool, unemotional eccentric. He confesses that his brain governs his heart: “I have never loved.”
Holmes self-references as a “consulting detective.” Clients clamour for his expertise but he only takes cases that interest him.
His knowledge of chemistry, anatomy and sensationalist literature is deep. He is au courant with British law and the latest psychology.
Holmes is intrigued by coincidences and the inexplicable, observes details and applies deductive reasoning and forensic science to hard evidence.
Every detail of the human condition is noted: emotional state, body language, skin marks, clothes, state of wear, stains.
His 19th-century chemistry lab displays Jena glass beakers, flasks, test tubes, petri dishes, goggles and reference books used for analyzing blood samples and toxicology detection.
Mrs. Hudson, well-played by Sochi Fried, is long-suffering but accepting of intrusive clients, scientific experiments and the atmosphere of genuine danger, as the rent payments are “princely” and she is genuinely fond of the always courteous and gentle Holmes.
Sanjay Talwar is convincing as Inspector Lestrade, who seeks the expertise of Holmes when human hearts are being found in popular public places such as Piccadilly and Paddington Station.
Whose hearts are they? What is the rationale of a serial killer to leave them as clues? Who will be next?
Holmes deduces the culprit to be the arch-villain James Moriarty, a ruthless and cunning professor of mathematics and criminal mastermind based on the real-life Adam Worth known as “the Napoleon of crime.”
But who is this Moriarty? Is he the man (Johnathan Sousa) who comes for an overlong tea? Or Miss Vespertine Hunter? Her name means evening hunter, a bat. She is powerfully played by Sophia Walker.
Holmes reports Moriarty to the police and, in fear for his life, flees to a hotel in the Swiss Alps. Moriarty tracks him down.
They will have their final encounter at the edge of the Reichenbach Fall and will disappear without a trace.
Conan Doyle’s inspiration for location was likely J.M.W. Turner’s 1804 watercolour, “The Great Fall at the Reichenbach in the Valley of Hasle, Switzerland.” Conan Doyle and his wife stayed at the Parkhotel du Sauvage in Meiringen near the falls.
This production achieves its goals of detailled accuracy worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Kudos to the costume designer Hanne Loosen for the 19th-century men’s Ulster, frock and morning coats, the three-piece suits with waistcoat pocket watch chains, stiff collars, floppy ties and bowler hats.
A pompous businessman’s startling plaid suit indicates his new wealth and pretence. The custodian helmets of the bobbies are a symbol of British law enforcement and worn by constables and sergeants on foot patrol.
Women’s garments feature long, puffy sleeved day dresses, visiting short capes over pussy bow dresses and small hats with upturned brims adorned with ribbons and feathers.
Cameron Davis’s projections of London by night and the high-altitude Swiss Alps by day were very effective in establishing mood, as were the set designs by Ken MacKenzie and lighting designs by Bonnie Beecher.
And if you need more, an official estate approved new adventure novel, “Holmes and Moriarty” by Gareth Rubin was just published in September.
Penny-Lynn Cookson is an arts and culture historian, writer and lecturer living in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
