How do you keep a character as time-worn and beloved as Sherlock Holmes fresh, interesting and deserving of another new story?
“Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood” (courtesy of P Burton-Morgan and Ben Glasstone) takes a leaf out of the BBC’s “Sherlock” series by relocating the action to modern-day London.
But while the BBC’s series retained the traditional trappings, relationships and dynamics of Conan Doyle’s original stories, The Watermill Theatre’s production deviates quite significantly from the source material with a number of bold choices – not the least of which is the decision to frame this new story as a musical.
Your enjoyment of the production will hinge very much on your appetite for these bold choices. So – what are they?
When the story starts, young Sherlock (Dylan Wood) has cultivated quite the online following courtesy of his landlady Watson (Me’Sha Bryan)’s social media posts concerning his previous adventures. It’s a brilliant and witty way of bringing the Sherlock Saga slap-bang into the 21st century, where the accounts of his victories are prefaced by a hashtag rather than a gentlemanly introduction.
Sherlock is soon asked by young activist Yorri (EM Williams) to investigate a mysterious death at a woodland protest camp, and gladly accepts the case – seeing the hand of the nefarious Dr Moriarty (Gillian Kirkpatrick) at play.
It perhaps says something about the production’s priorities that both I and Sherlock quickly lost track of this initial mystery. This is partly due to the story making an about-turn into a wider conspiracy (no bad thing; The X Files often did this to great effect), and partly due to the story’s increasing focus on the characters, their troubled upbringings and their dysfunctional relationships – rather than on the actual crime.
I won’t say too much about this side of the story at the risk of spoiling things – but suffice to say that while the issues explored are undoubtedly heavy, they are not dealt with in a heavy-handed way, and they do a great job of sensitively explaining why some of these characters (both new and old) might’ve made the life choices that they’ve made.
The production also does a good job of balancing the tears with plenty of laughs, many of them courtesy of Inspector Lestrade (Richard P. Peralta). I’ve never heard the phrase “nefarious global potato conspiracy” before, but it nimbly captures the playful spirit animating much of the action.
That same spirit is evident in the songs and music, which do a great job of embodying each character’s personality. While there are perhaps more songs than you might anticipate (often separated by a very short amount of dialogue and revisited on multiple occasions) they are skilfully written and very witty, and they really are the centrepiece of the production – serving to both progress the plot and provide the story’s emotional core. They are also brilliantly played and sung and are complemented by effective use of projections which (amongst other things) bring Sherlock’s Mind Palace and incredible mental connections to vivid life.
Much like The Watermill’s 2023 production of “Mansfield Park”, this is possibly not a production that on first glance is for hardcore fans of the source material – but if you’re open to a modernised retelling of that material, one which explores the hidden dimensions of well-worn characters and questions some of the basic things you’ve always taken for granted, then there is much to enjoy here.
“Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood” runs from the 2nd February – 16th March; tickets can be booked at https://www.watermill.org.uk.
