Review: HOLMES & WATSON at Laguna Playhouse

Holmes & Watson is a gripping mystery thriller at the award-winning historic Laguna Playhouse running through June 16th.  Directed with verve and crackling energy by Laguna Playhouse artistic director David Ellenstein, Holmes & Watson is twisty and engrossing.  Lovers of Agatha Christie, Knives Out, Michael Connelly, and of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, will be absolutely delighted by this fiendish period mystery starring everyone’s favorite sleuth and cocaine addict.

In Holmes & Watson, there are three madmen (Matt Koenig, Matthew Floyd Miller, and Christopher M.  Williams) claiming to be Holmes, imprisoned on an island insane asylum, under the care of a mysterious Dr. Evans (Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper), a violent orderly (Mike Peebler), and an officious Matron (Alice Sherman).  Watson (Richard Baird) pays a visit to the forsaken island to identify the madmen, hoping against hope that one of them might be his dead friend Sherlock Holmes.  But in this play, truly nothing is at seems.  This escapist period detective story has so many shocking revelations that it causes the audience to question literally everything they have seen, in the vein of the 1995 crime thriller classic The Usual Suspects.   

Accomplished playwright, screenwriter and television writer Jeffrey Hatcher has written multiple Sherlock Holmes plays and the 2015 film Mr. Holmes starring Ian McKellen and Laura Linney.  In Holmes & Watson, Hatcher picks up the thread from one of the most horrifying stories for Sherlock fans - the one where Holmes dies.

Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published the short story The Final Problem, in 1893, in Strand Magazine.  In this installment, Sherlock Holmes dies at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had been itching to kill off Sherlock Holmes for some time.  In fact, Doyle secretly hated his own character.  He yearned to be a more literary writer of historical novels, and not waste all his time with “cheap fiction” and detective stories.  “"I must save my mind for better things, even if it means I must bury my pocketbook with him,” Doyle wrote.

But the public reaction was far more intense than Doyle had anticipated.  Readers were outraged and heartbroken.  In London, there were tales of fans wandering around grieving and wearing funereal black.  20,000 readers canceled subscriptions to Strand Magazine where the story had been published, and the magazine barely survived.  To this day, Sherlock Holmes fans makes pilgrimages to Meiringen in Switzerland and dress as characters from The Final Problem.

Far from escaping the beloved character he had created, Doyle was forced to resurrect Holmes in 1901 with the publication of The Hound of the Baskervilles, a kind of prequel, and later Doyle created the back story that Holmes had only appeared to die.  He continued to write Sherlock Holmes stories through 1927.

In Holmes & Watson, it has been three years since the mystery of what really happened at Reichenbach Falls.  There is nothing terribly profound in Holmes & Watson, just lots of period fun, devilish surprises, cerebral mystery, and taut, frenetic suspense. The stagecraft is truly stunning, with superlative work from scenic designer Stephen Gifford.  It is a startlingly cinematic production, with gorgeous, luminous, creepy, genius lighting design by Jared A. Sayeg and dynamic sound effects by Ian Scot that create tremendous mood and realism.

There is great acting throughout Holmes & Watson.  Alice Sherman delivers unexpected laughs through her brilliant timing and mysterious intrigue as The Matron and other role as The Woman.  Mike Peebler is a vivid and likeable performer, absolutely spellbinding as the evil criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, perhaps a little underwhelming in his other incarnations on stage (his impressive TV credits include Mad Men, Mentalist, ER, and many more).

I last saw Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper shine as the menacing, volatile murderer Bill Sikes in 5-Star Theatricals’ production of Oliver!, and he is utterly transformed here as Dr. Evans.  In fact, I struggled to recognize him.  Mongiardo-Cooper is a tremendously gifted actor.  He brings delicious humor, pure charisma and exquisite comedic timing to Dr. Evans, making his work here vibrantly entertaining and deeply enthralling.

Richard Baird was mesmerizing as crusty pessimist rancher brother Noah Curry in every scene of Laguna Playhouse’s The Rainmaker, which is one of my all time favorite productions.  His work here as Watson is likewise transfixing, organic, richly layered, and infinitely surprisingly.  Baird is a brilliant actor and it is always a profound pleasure to see his magnificent work.

Photos by Jason Niedle/Tethos

Holmes & Watson runs through June 16 at the Laguna Playhouse.  The Laguna Playhouse is located at 606 Laguna Canyon Dr. in Laguna Beach.  You can get tickets and more more information by calling (949) 497-2787 or by clicking the button below:

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