MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON - APT. 2B Comes to Portland Center Stage

The work of Kate Hamill, one of the most-produced playwrights in the country, returns to Portland Center Stage in the new year, bringing another innovative, feminist lens to a literary favorite. This time, Hamill envisions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterful stories as a female buddy comedy with Holmes and Watson played by women and set in the present day. Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B begins preview performances on January 14, opens on January 20, and runs through February 12 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. Tickets are on sale now.

Ashley Song, who is currently starring in PCS's It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, will play the character of Sherlock Holmes. Song will be joined by Kimberly Chatterjee, who will make her PCS debut as Dr. Joan Watson. Portland actors Dana Green and Darius Pierce return to bring detectives, criminals, and other favorite characters to life from Doyle's stories.

"Kate Hamill's brilliant adaptation of the iconic Holmes and Watson duo is deliciously funny," said Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, who will direct this production. "From nun costumes to buckets of blood to jumping onto moving trains, this play contains all the joyful elements of a farce crossed with a cozy mystery - the perfect antidote to brighten a dark winter day!"

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B was developed at PCS's JAW New Play Festival in 2021, in partnership with KCRep. Portland audiences will be the first to experience this new play hot off its world premiere at KCRep, and the script has since been further developed at Portland Center Stage. Black Bee Buzz praised KCRep's production as "bloody good ... if the classic characters are the heart of Apt. 2B, then near-broad comedy is its soul ... by lights down, the heart has beat wildly with hope of romance, the gut has jiggled from guffaw and giggles, and the mind has flexed with solving puzzles and decoding riddles."

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B follows the wildly popular staging of Hamill's adaptation of Bedlam's Sense & Sensibility at PCS. Hamill has received much praise for her adaptations. The Wall Street Journal noted that "Hamill's adaptations of the classics are endlessly ingenious." The New York Times has called her adaptations "irresistible theater," "a gift to actors and a goody bag for its audience," and even, "a powerful argument for the full humanity of women in our culture - a matter that's not as settled as we might like to think."

Fast-paced and wonderfully farcical, this is the bold, feminist take on the iconic crime-fighting duo that you've been awaiting. It's present-day Baker Street and female roommates Holmes and Watson careen from caper to caper. Eventually, they come face-to-face with a supervillain who seems to have all of the answers. Get ready for a quasi-dysfunctional, "Odd Couple'' comedy that packs in non-stop laughs and hijinks galore.

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