The audience could be forgiven for thinking they had come along to an old-fashioned farce with falling stage sets, drawers that won't shut and dodgy sound effects not to mention unfunny jokes and equally unconvincing acting. However, this turns out to be a play within, or rather at the beginning of a play. I have to say I was totally taken in. I also have to say that many people around me seemed to enjoy this bit of the production. Luckily the curtain reopens on a very different scene. Holmes is morose and jittery until he gets a double fix from his drugs of choice - the "7% solution" and a mystery to solve. The play within the play is none other than a Sherlock Holmes mystery written by his friend and chronicler Dr Watson. Obviously this evening's drama is setting out to explore themes beyond who did what to whom including the relationship between creator and characters.  | | But what does she know (c) Mike Kwasniak |
In time-honoured tradition a mysterious and veiled woman arrives at 221B Baker Street where a newly-married Watson has just turned up to find out how his old friend is coping. The chase is afoot. Without giving the game away we can say this production has many of the ingredients we expect in a Sherlock Holmes story - the seemingly inexplicable, some clues to challenge Holmes' wit and even the possibility of some forensic evidence along the way. But dramatist Carl Miller's Holmes definitely has his dark side. He declares more than once that there is nothing more to life than "the power of lust and the lust for power." There is more than one hint of sexual ambivalence. Miller also paints a seamy picture of a London where women can only fend for themselves by prostitution or going on the stage. Watson, it seems, had definitely been harbouring some grudges against his old companion. Yet somehow I wasn't convinced. In this version the plot didn't matter all that much and the pace was slow. This was a mistake Conan Doyle seldom made - the original stories were serialised. Jack Blumanau gives an interesting performance as Holmes' boy servant Billy as does Luke Shaw as Doctor Watson. I couldn't help thinking that Jonathen Keeble's performance as Holmes was a little uneven. It has to be said it must be a daunting performance for any actor with so many celebrated screen predecessors always looking over one's shoulder. Unfortunately, while the production design served the play well, the drama came a bit too near to the "play" we saw at the start when a behind-the-scenes phone rang and continued to ring. "Elementary, my dear Watson?" Sherlock Holmes: The Athenaeum Ghoul (a Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds production) runs at Wakefield Theatre Royal and Opera House until Saturday 15 October. | 
