Review: 'Sherlock Holmes and the Doom of Devilsmoor'
By Mark Collins
Thursday, October 23, 2008
LAFAYETTE -- Before "CSI" and "SVU," before "NYPD Blue" or "Hill Street Blues" or "Adam 12" and "Dragnet," American TV audiences watched the most famous detective of all solve crimes with little evidence and lots of deductive reasoning.
Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce was Dr. Watson in 14 films made in the 1930s and '40s. A Sherlock Holmes television series was produced and aired in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
Dozens of other series and one-offs have used Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original novels and short stories about the fictitious British detective as inspiration through the years. If you're an older baby boomer, you probably spent a Saturday or two in front of the TV trying to solve a crime before Holmes did.
Theater Company of Lafayette's production of "Sherlock Holmes and the Doom of Devilsmoor" is a world premiere staging of a script by Washington-based playwright C.P. Stancich. This is the fifth play of Stancich's TCL has produced. The production, directed by Ray Viggiano, takes its inspiration from the film and TV versions. This both helps and hampers the show.
The TV influence comes across most notably -- and when the cues are timed well, most effectively -- during the play's light changes and musical underscoring. Dramatic violin trills accent moments of import. Spotlights suddenly hit characters during others. The production is at its most entertaining when it aims for the sharp contrasts.
Unfortunately, during last Friday's opening night performance, some of the light and sound was awkwardly executed, and the play's first scene -- set on the street -- was so darkly lit, the audience couldn't see the actors. The cues should improve as the run continues.
The Devilsmoor story, which Stancich invented, revolves around the caddish Edward Banks (a robust Matt Ellison), who is doting on a seemingly fragile woman named Ann Prahlly (a demure Lisa Lowery). When a large and mysterious crate containing a frightening specter arrives at Banks' country estate, Watson and Holmes are summoned.
Stancich has created 10 unique characters, each of whose status and background is easily discernible. Mrs. Selkirk (a wonderfully deadpan Ellen Ranson) interjects as the Scottish maid, while Inspector Lee (a lively performance by Bill Graham) is a workingman's copper who won't be duped.
Ashley VanScoyoc provides a steady hand as Watson, and Brock Williams, though he's a bit young for the part, is dashing, smart and sure-headed as Holmes.
There are some delightful and unexpected twists and turns as the plot unfolds in "Devilsmoor." Other times, characters' relationships and possible dastardly motivations are too hidden, and trying to figure out exactly what's going on turns tedious. Still other times, things feel wordy and over-explained.
Or maybe that's the expectations of a television program -- where the story is told as much visually as with dialogue -- clashing with the conventions in a piece written for the stage. And that's the problem with this "Devilsmoor." It tries to capture some of the melodramatic tones of an old television program, but isn't really written for that. It's stuck somewhere in between.
Contact Camera Theater Critic Mark Collins at 303-473-1369 or BDCTheater@comcast.net.