Strange Bedfellows? No, a Perfect Pairing: Kinetic’s ‘Sherlock Carol’ 

Bah! Humbug! Sherlock Holmes (David Whalen, center) is the toast of London but he’s not feeling it. His concerned neighbors are played by (L to R) Simon Bradbury, Carolyn Jerz, Joseph McGranaghan, and Caroline Nicolian.

Sometimes, weird ideas work. There is a Christmas play in Pittsburgh that ought to be seen before its too-brief run ends, and the idea behind it sounds like the premise for a silly fanfic. What if Sherlock Holmes were to meet Ebenezer Scrooge? 

Although they don’t exactly meet in the flesh, their paths cross and merge memorably in A Sherlock Carol at Kinetic Theatre (through December 22). You’ll laugh. You may be moved to tears. You’ll be transported by the artistry of the actors. The whole thing comes together with such brilliance that by the end, the only possible question is: How come nobody thought of this before?

A Sherlock Carol is the brainchild of New York-based playwright and theater artist Mark Shanahan. It has been staged to critical acclaim off-Broadway and in London. And while the policy of this reviewer is never to call any show a must-see, you might guess, from the gushing expressed above, that in this case I’ve been tempted to make an exception. 

‘The Game Is Afoot’

The play is set in Victorian London on the day before Christmas of 1894. Sherlock Holmes has recently dispatched his archenemy, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty. (“Moriarty is dead, to begin with,” Sherlock announces, thus echoing the famous opening line of A Christmas Carol: “Marley was dead, to begin with.”) But instead of feeling triumphantly merry, Sherlock is mired in gloom. “Without a worthy adversary I am nothing,” he mourns. No other cases will ever be worth solving, he concludes. 

And nobody can rouse the detective from his dark torpor. Nobody, that is, until a Dr. Timothy Cratchit comes to call. It’s Tiny Tim, now grown up and the head physician at a hospital for indigent children. The hospital depends on funding from its benefactor, the by-now very elderly Ebenezer Scrooge. But alas, Dr. Cratchit explains, a tragedy has just occurred. Mr. Scrooge has been found dead in his apartment, perhaps not from sheer old age. For one thing, Scrooge’s last will and testament is missing. Which casts suspicion on the manner of death, and could also spell doom for the hospital if the will can’t be tracked down. 

Sherlock agrees to take the case! “The game is afoot!” he cries out. And from there, A Sherlock Carol unfolds into the merriest caper that one could hope to see enacted onstage. 

Sherlock’s deductive pursuits lead him through a cavalcade of encounters with bizarre characters. There’s a rollicking song-and-dance scene in a tavern. There are parallel mysteries—the theft of a goose; the theft of a precious gem—which thicken the plot, but by no means weigh it down. Quirky laugh lines erupt from the mouths of suspects trying to explain their dubious behavior— “I went out back among the geese. To think”—and there’s a wonderful comic/romantic subplot involving Irene Adler, the opera singer-slash-femme fatale from an original Sherlock Holmes story. 

As for poor, dead Scrooge, weep not. Although he is deceased, to begin with, at the risk of giving spoilers I will note that his spirit lives on. 

A Merging of Fictional Worlds

If you are familiar with the Canon, the Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, you’ll find many elements lifted from them in A Sherlock Carol. For example, the mystery of the stolen gem is from “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” However I am hardly a Sherlock maven and I enjoyed the play without missing a beat. 

Readers of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol will likewise notice many lines and allusions lifted from the novella. What’s compelling is how elements from both sides are tweaked, shuffled around, and re-applied to new uses—especially in the portrayal of Sherlock. During the play he becomes what Scrooge was for Dickens. 

The original Sherlock, the Sherlock of the Canon, indeed is similar in some ways to pre-conversion-experience Scrooge, and that is how he’s presented (with some exaggeration) here. He’s a man accustomed to seeing life as grim and most people as fools. Aside from his friendship with Watson, he is, like Scrooge, “self-contained, and solitary as an oyster”—and in the play, Sherlock even rejects Watson while in the depths of his initial funk.

Then, over the course of the play, Sherlock undergoes a conversion experience of his own. It is more gradual than Scrooge’s, but definitely spirit-aided, at least in part. That accounts for the touching, tear-jerking aspects of A Sherlock Carol. Those touching aspects go down nicely, sort of sneaking up on you amid the nonstop action and hijinks. 

Irene Adler, opera diva and currently Countess of Morcar, takes a hands-on approach to Sherlock’s angst. She’s also likely to burst into song.

And it’s all put across just as you’d want it by the talent assembled for this production. Actor David Whalen, who has played Sherlock many times, plays him with seamless authority. The rest of the cast have multiple parts. Joseph McGranaghan, lean but strong, is utterly believable in his main role as Tiny Tim grown up. Caroline Nicolian (Irene Adler and others) doesn’t have to be a scene-stealer; she owns her scenes from the get-go. James FitzGerald, Carolyn Jerz, Simon Bradbury: all excellent in their own ways. On the night I went, Susan McGregor-Laine could not perform and her roles were filled by Helena Ruoti, also excellent. 

You furthermore get live background music throughout, to go with the occasional songs and dances. Some things probably could’ve been done better, though I can’t imagine what they are. The years have brought us many adaptations of A Christmas Carol as well as many follow-on pastiches featuring Sherlock Holmes. They say comparisons are odious, but I say A Sherlock Carol gives you the best of both. 

Closing Credits and Ticket Info

Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol is directed for Kinetic Theatre by Andrew Paul, the company’s producing artistic director. He deserves extra credit for choosing the play, to begin with. Through December 22 in the Henry Heymann Theatre adjoining the Cathedral of Learning, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland. For tickets and details, visit Kinetic on the web. 

Music for the play is composed, arranged, and directed by Douglas Levine, who also plays keyboard; the violinist is Cara Garofalo. Scenic design is by Johnmichael Bohach, with lighting by Christopher Popowich, sound by Mark Whitehead, and costumes by Kimberly Brown. Louis P. Taylor is technical director. Alex Keplar is in charge of properties, and the stage manager is Jess Levine.  

Photos: Rocky Raco

Mike Vargo, a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer, covers theater and other arts for Entertainment Central.

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