Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club
Written by Jeffrey Hatcher
Directed by Tom Larkin
Starring Tim DeBaun and Dean Walkuski
Theatre Downtown, Orlando Fla</strong>
Sherlock Holmes (DeBaun) is getting a bit long in the tooth, practically and metaphorically. In this first new adventure in a few decades, Holmes is feeling his age and put forth he’s losing his mental edge. Maybe it’s time to short circuit fate taking that big jump into the unknown. Is it really terminal depression, or just research for a case? He won’t tell Watson (Walkuski) and I certainly won’t tell you much beyond the Suicides Club’s odd rules: Billiard balls are drawn, first to decide who gets it, and then who gives it. Amazingly Mr. Williams (Russell R. Trahan) has failed to pull the fatal ball in odds defying 12 pulls out of a set of 5 balls; statistically this is about as likely as you winning the Power Ball jack pot, and its Holmes’ angle into the case. The story is full of the sorts of twists and turns that make implausible mystery’s the most enjoyable, and the cast is populated with the sort of colorful characters we expect to find at the Theatre Downtown lobby bar drinking cheap red wine.
Foremost is Walkuski’s bumbling Watson, he’s a bit over the top and always in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he does well once he arrives. DeBaun’s Watson feels a bit tentative, either he’s acting Holmes loss of mental time and space, or he’s still getting his lines down. Trahan’s Mr. Williams has a sugar habit, and seems like one of those permanently drunk guys you see in old black and white movies while David Strauss plays the Russian Count “Mr. Charles”. His suicide might not resolve his life’s problem, but if not he’s destined to return to Mother Russia and Sister Firing Squad. His lover is Christine de LaBegassier (Amy Strickhouser); she’s a tad wooden but evokes the mystery a woman of uncertain intent ought to radiate. The other club members put up a good front as well; Mr. Henry (John Palmer) seems the least threatening; in his wheel chair he’s going to have to a hard time getting up and down all those London steps. There’s a bit of stage magic as well, but most if it involves Club Sectary (Monica Titus) flourishing billiard balls and an un-scary “Knife through the neck” routine.
While the plot is suitably involved, it proceeds rather slowly even if some of the stage tricks are nicely innovative: watch for the “Murder Scrim.” The story has its issues, but the cast jumps in a gives us a good Victorian drama – there’s not that much depth, but there plenty of broad humor in this production.
For more information on Theatre Downtown, please visit http://www.theatredowntown.net
