This is a real humdinger of a Holmes, an intoxicating swirl through the mind of the fictional detective who has fascinated figures as diverse as Harrison Ford, Agatha Christie, and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Joel Horwood’s update takes Conan Doyle’s original The Sign of Four and liberally spices it with elements of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, the BBC’s Sherlock and an opium dream, to create a storyline that keeps you on your toes at the same time as it leads you through a labyrinth.
It’s a quarter of a century since I reviewed the then unknown Benedict Cumberbatch in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of Love’s Labours Lost, where he appeared as the King of Navarre. None of us could imagine, at that point, the impact that he and Mark Gatiss would have on our ideas of who Sherlock could be – but this brilliantly inventive production responds to the innovation of the TV series by pushing everything a notch further.
Director Sean Holmes has finally bowed to the forces of nominative determinism to take the helm for this update – in the process, transferring from the Globe, where he is currently Associate Director, to the leafier surrounds of Regent’s Parks’ Inner Circle. Here, it is Joshua James who plays Sherlock as an otherworldly rebel in a pale blue waistcoat and trousers, who we first meet as he spars in a boxing match, desperate for a distraction while he awaits his next case.
The staging of this boxing match – dynamically overseen by movement director Charlotte Broom – sets the tone for the whole production. On the revolving stage, there’s no fixed boxing ring, but a sense of a world in flux, as actors dance backwards and forwards with the guy ropes. Sherlock receives more punches than he lands, but he seems positively exhilarated rather than dismayed by this fact. In the meanwhile, Jyuddah James’s endearingly earnest Watson reads out a list of possible cases they might investigate next, most of which are dismissed by Sherlock as he searches for something suitably esoteric.
The central strand of the plot revolves around concepts of the British Empire and immigration, as Mary, the illegitimate mixed-race child of a British officer Captain Marston – comes to Holmes and Watson to tell them about the gemstones that are sent to her annually. A visit to Thaddeus, the son of Major Sholto, reveals to them that Captain Marston and his father were two of the four figures involved in the abduction during an Indian mutiny of a box of treasure containing a jewel that casts a curse on anyone who tries to steal it. As the evening progresses, this mystery becomes intertwined with the theft of papers from the Civil Service detailing a weapon so powerful that any country that possesses it could start a world war. In the meantime, an apparent miscarriage of justice lands Mary in Wormwood Scrubs, so that Holmes and Watson find themselves in a race against the clock to stop her from being hanged.
You get the sense that the team putting this show together has had a ball – there’s a circus complete with flame throwing (see immediately above) and sword swallowing, asides about everything from the structure of Tower Bridge to the mysterious workings of the civil service, and an attempted escape in a hot air balloon. Meanwhile, Elena Peña’s filmic sound design mashes up the sounds of horses’ hooves and carriage wheels to evoke the sounds of the streets of Victorian London in the interludes between each scene. The film aesthetic extends to ingenious rewind sections that allow us to zigzag happily through the story’s timeline.
Horwood’s update also picks up on every nuance of recent Holmes adaptations, as regards his sexuality, neurodivergence, and addiction, throwing in a dollop of masochism for good measure. Yet it’s part of the strength of this adaptation that none of these define him as much his relish for the world’s infinite variety – as another playwright might have put it, “There are more things in heaven and earth, [Watson], than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.
Some people might be a little befuddled by the “blink and you’ll miss it” details of the plot, which takes gleeful sideswipes at populist politics and concepts of “the enemy within” at the same time as it pays tribute to the nineteenth century’s most madcap mysteries. Yet while it is unashamedly cerebral – in a way that should satisfy diehard Sherlock fans – there is plenty of pure entertainment, not least a spectacular punch up that uses the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre space at a level I’ve never seen before.
The early British summer elements did their best to put a chill on proceedings – it was notable that the queue for hot chocolate at the interval considerably outflanked the queue for alcoholic refreshment – but the energy of the cast ensured we were all in it for the long haul. This promises to be one of the best shows of the summer, so dig out your thermals and deerstalkers and head to NW1 – if you don’t get all the details the first time round, just take that as an excuse to return when it’s warmer.
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