Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE INVISIBLE THING, Rudolf Steiner Theatre

It's only natural that, after its original 2016 run in Chiswick, a revised version of Greg Freeman's Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Thing should land at the Rudolf Steiner Theatre, just down the road from 221B Baker Street itself.

This time around, Arthur Conan Doyle's detective grapples with a murder perpetrated by an invisible entity. Summoned by Inspector Peacock (Doug Cooper), Holmes (Stephen Chance) and Watson (Phillip Mansfield) try to solve the impossible case clashing with Miss Lucy Grendle (Vanessa-Faye Stanley) - whose father had a dark past - and the history between the woman and the icy Holmes (along with her alcoholism).

Sadly, it's an undistinguished production. David Phipps-Davis's direction is erratic: displaced on two levels, the actors move around without a definite nor coherent trajectory. The drawing room of Grendle's mansion hosts all the action, including the tacky unexplainable supernatural events that haunt the scene. It's far from being a subtle show too. Stiff performances and redundant comedy are only the tip of the iceberg, with the script's slightly melodramatic tendencies being overdone and unfortunately incorporated in the acting too.

Freeman fails to build tension in the text, which leads the actors to deliver a dull and far from gripping story. There's no atmosphere nor suspense, and the great unsubtlety of the play develops into a weight too large to bear. The romantic subtext becomes chunky in its delivery, with Holmes's usual sentimental blindness being used for cheap laughs and Watson's bumbling savviness as a quick way out of sticky situations.

There aren't many redeeming features in the production: Leah Sams's set design might appeal to the easily pleased with its vaguely Caravaggesque vibe and naturalistic detailing, but the show as a whole isn't a successful example of a well told mystery, leaning towards a sort of tourist trap more than anything.

Chance's Holmes sits between Benedict Cumberbatch and Basil Rathbone but either actor's charismatic qualities are nowhere to be seen in his performance. His nonexistent body language leads to an unfortunate lack of ownership of the character and turns it into a mere caricature. This seems to spread among the rest of the cast, heightened by an awkward absence of chemistry throughout. The "invisible thing" of the title becomes the issue that lies underneath the impoverished material and forcibly classic outer look of the show.

Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Thing runs at Rudolf Steiner Theatre until 18 August.

Photo credit: Alastair Hilton

To post a comment, you must register and login.