Indy Theatre Habit

Last Friday night I hurried home after work to shower and change for the opening night of the opening show of the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s 2008-2009 season:  “Sherlock Holmes: the Final Adventure,” adapted by Steven Dietz and directed by Peter Amster.   (Amster is the same person who directed the IRT’s blissfully fresh production of “Our Town” last fall.)

I hereby apologize to everyone I know in real life for not inviting anyone else to accompany me after the first person I asked told me she would be out of town that night.  This show, this whole event, was a real treat.  I should not have let my extra media ticket go to waste.

I am going to write about the show itself in this post, and then about the “razzle-dazzle” of opening night in another post.

What I love most about this show is this: its portrayal of the iconic Sherlock Holmes as fully human; the blend of quirky characters, including two strong females - a villain and a heroine; and its clever stagecraft - the dance of the Victorian set pieces in particular.

Jonathan Gillard Daly is Sherlock Holmes.  By the end of the show I was completely smitten with him.  He portrays Holmes as brilliant, of course, but also endearingly human.  He appreciates his dear friend, Doctor Watson (Mark Goetzinger), he respects his monstrous arch enemy, Professor Moriarty (Nigel Patterson), and he is amusingly condescending towards women…until he meets and falls in love with the one woman who is more than his equal, opera star Irene Adler (Michele Graff.)

One of these days I am going to have to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novels about this character.  Richard Roberts was the dramaturg for this show.  I bet this was a particularly interesting piece to research.

In this show, Holmes shoots cocaine for medicinal purposes, against the advice of his doctor.  It is not a major theme in the show, but it is another element - a dark one - that makes the gifted Holmes wholly human.

Mark Goetzinger plays the loyal Doctor Watson.  He narrates the story while helping to re-enact it.  He climbs through basement windows for his friend Holmes and lets Holmes’ arrogance just wash over him.  He is cuddly, smarter than Holmes when it comes to emotions, and patient - much more patient that I would be with a demanding friend like Holmes.

Watson recognizes Holmes’ true feelings for the opera singer before Holmes does.  Near the beginning of the show, the two men are in Holmes’ study where Irene Adler’s exquisitely beautiful voice is coming from a wax cylinder playing on the phonograph.  “It is the voice of love,” Watson says.  Holmes tells him not to be silly.

However, when the hilariously pompous King of Bohemia (Robert Neal) appears and begs the famous detective to help him retrieve an incriminating photograph from Adler, Holmes jumps at the excuse to meet her in person.

The quest for the photograph brings Holmes into contact with slimy and spineless James Larrabee (Ryan Artzberger), his devious and cold-hearted sister, Madge Larrabee (Diane Kondrat), and the casually violent Sid Prince (Robert K. Johansen, who is also the fight choreographer for the show.)  All the while, of course, the evil Moriarty is lurking in the shadows.  An interesting assortment of pistols and other weapons spice up the mix even further.  At one point, a gun shot so startled me that I dropped my pen! 

But it is the surprises in Adler herself that are most beguiling to Holmes, and to me.  She is as clever as he is, or cleverer.  My favorite line from the play is when she says, “A woman may be courted and wed, captured and won…but she can, Mr. Holmes, never be solved.”  

However, I did want him to try a little harder, if not to solve her, than to communicate his feelings to her.  I confess that at one point I wanted to smack him out of his cluelessness.  That, or shout, ” ‘Lock, buddy, it’s okay to tell her you like her!”   I behaved myself, though, and just sympathized silently with them both.

The versatile Robert K. Johansen changes his appearance completely several times during the show to play several other roles in addition to Sid Prince.  Sections of the set also change appearance as they move forward or back, up or down, while Doctor Watson moves across them in his narration or while other characters move from place to place.  (The scenic designer is Russell Metheny.  The stage manager is Nathan Garrison.)

Shannon McKinney’s lighting design heightens the fact that people and places are literally moving in and out of importance, in and out of danger, in and out of perspective to us and to each other. 

Joe Cerqua’s sound design adds satisfying layers of echoes and roars and throbs.  The program says that Cerqua is the show’s composer, too.  I especially loved the deliciously mysterious music that opens the show, and the dark, menacing music that accompanies Moriarty’s creepy first appearance on stage.   Nancy Lipshultz was the dialect coach for this show.  The different classes of British accents (plus one royal Bohemian accent!) add still another satisfying layer of aural texture.

The Victorian costumes, designed by Tracy Dorman, are a pleasure, too.  The women wear long, bustled dresses that sweep the floor and require special maneuvering when turning corners.  At one point, Irene Adler carries a teeny-tiny parasol that is more like a hat on a stick than anything that will protect her from the sun or the rain, but it is so sweet, so dear!  It made me want to accessorize my own outfits with equal wit.

The men are dashing in top hats and waistcoats.  The King of Bavaria adds a bright blue satin sash over his chest, tied at the hip in a large rosette.  It looks like something a king would really wear, but it also matches his bombastic personality.

This isn’t a show for little kids, but I think that children in upper elementary grades and older would be as fascinated as I was by the show’s special effects.  Teens and adults who already love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters from reading the books will, I think, enjoy seeing and hearing the characters brought to life in this theatre piece.  For those of us who only know Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty through hearsay, this show is a wonderful encouragement to read the books, and a delight in and of itself.

“Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure” runs at the Indiana Repertory Theatre through October 11, 2008.  To make a reservation, please visit the IRT website or call the IRT ticket office at 317-635-5252.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com