Ms Holmes and Ms Watson Apt.2B at Arcola Theatre

A present day reimagining of the classic detective character Shirlock Holmes by award winning American playwright Kate Hamil. ‘Ms holmes and Ms watson’ bills itself as: …..’A whip smart darkly comic collision of classic murder mystery and modern mayhem for holmes devotees comedy lovers and anyone who enjoys clever caper with a bite, this is Shirlock just not as you know her’….

After a somewhat convaluted introduction the play begins with Dr, Joan Watson (Simona Brown) arriving in London (On a long career break from the US) and heading to Baker street to enquire about the room in Apt.2B

She is met by heavily accented landlady Mrs Drebber (Played by Alice Lucy who took on multiple small roles throughout the play) and eccentric sitting tennant Shirley/Shirlock Holmes (played by Lucy Farrett)

(The first clue that the writer was maybe unfamiliar with the UK was the fact there was absolutely no attempt to explain how unemployed Watson and reculsive Homes could possibly afford to rent a flat in central London.)

But faster than you can say ‘short hold tenancy agreement’ the adventure began, with a visit from officer Lestrade (played by Tendai Humphrey Sitma) who is fresh from Scotland yard with a tricky murder case, would Shirlock care to assist? Obviously the answer is yes, and so the trio are plunged into the scene of a grisly ‘crime passional’. At this point something comes a bit unstuck and somehow and the cast all seemed to go off and start acting in completely different plays: Holmes and Lucy are apparently reenacting an old episode of midsummer murders. Watson is doing ‘Rent’, and officer Lestrade is cos-playing Humphrey Bogart (complete with pistol and beige trench coat.)
Of course the crime gets solved but the play just seemed to go further off the rails and I must admit when the curtain fell for the interval I was not feeling very enthusiastic about what I had just seen.
To make matters worse the production didn’t even have the decency to bribe us with press drinks!

It was an exercise in will power to go back for round two, but I decided to stay the course (Mainly because I got chatting to a fellow critic who like me was also having luke warm feelings toward the show.)

To cut a long story short the second half was longer, more convoluted, more ridiculous, bordering on farcical but not a good way.

For the first half of the play I thought Simona Brown (playing Watson) was leading the cast in terms of acting ability but I came to realise that was because she was the only character who had been allowed even a millimeter of emotional depth. Dr Joan Watson has a back story and as such has been tweaked into a sort of vaguely almost believable female lead.
However no such effort has been made with the character of Shirley/Shirlock Holmes, actor Lucy Farrett certainly gives it her best shot but this Holmes is basically a two dimensional pastiche of the most socially unappealing character traits of Benedict Cumberbatch in the series ‘Shirlock’ and Robert Downey jnr in the Sherlock Holmes movie franchise.

Ms Holmes is arrogant, manic, semi feral and probably queer (yawn!) – I say that as in this instance it didn’t read like progressive 21st century femanism, but just seemed like futher proof of lazy writing: Absolutely no attempt was made to explore or develop the character in a female form – In which case which why bother  with the gender swap in the first place?)

Alice Lucy was a solid swing and did her the best with the roles she was given – Especially supervillan Irene Addler, but Mrs Drebbers Irish accent could definitely use a little work!

Tendai Humphrey Sitima (Officer Lestrade) honestly this guy just seemed like he was going through the motions which is understandable I guess but also rather a shame as he trained at Rada and has an impressive CV, it would have been good see more from him.

Costume by Sarah Perks was bang average, it worked for the most part ( Yes I did notice the details like Holmes wearing plus 4s and lace up boots as nod the characters Victorian origins but to be honest I don’t think it really brought anything to the table and there were other areas she could have focused her efforts on such as getting a decent police outfit for Lestrade or maybe a couple of wigs for Alice Lucy to give her clearer definition when switching between characters.)

In terms of the set Max Dory had really gone all out in creating the chaotic slightly dilapidated interior of apartment 2B and hats off to him it did look fantastic. The problem was that all those layers of carefully positioned junk served no practical purpose and actually just got in the way a lot of the time making it much harder to tell when there was a scene change, sorry to say it but you could’ve done so much more with so much less.

In short sorry to say it but there is literally nothing you can salvage from this car crash of a production don’t waste your time.