Damien Atkins as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart.Emily Cooper/Shaw Festival
- Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart
- Written by: Reginald Candy
- Director: Craig Hall
- Actors: Damien Atkins, Ric Reid, Claire Jullien
- Company: Shaw Festival
- Venue: Festival Theatre
- City: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
- Year: Runs to Oct. 13
Has Sherlock Holmes, now back on stage at the Shaw Festival, finally met his end? Fingers crossed!
Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart, a new play having its world premiere at the Shaw Festival, begins with Dr. John Watson (Ric Reid) telling us the case we are about to hear culminates in the death of his best friend.
This was very cheering news for this particular theatre critic, who has grown tired of the deerstalker-wearing detective’s recent pride of place at the Niagara-on-the-Lake destination repertory theatre company.
Since 2018, the British novelist Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation has been on the Shaw main stage more often than plays by Bernard Shaw himself.
And Sherlock hasn’t appeared in classic, literary stage versions, or fun fresh takes, but in a succession of new-ish but stodgy period adaptations staged in a pedestrian manner by director Craig Hall. They give the Shaw the whiff of a past-its-prime regional theatre.
The Mystery of the Human Heart is, ostensibly, a world premiere by an Australian playwright named Reginald Candy – but the mystery I’d really like to get to the bottom of is who he is.
Michael Man (left) as Mr. James Ryder, Kelly Wong as Mr. Jabez Wilson, Damien Atkins as Sherlock Holmes, Johnathan Sousa as Mr. Hall Pycroft and Sochi Fried as Miss Mary Sutherland in Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart.Emily Cooper/Shaw Festival
I Googled all the plays in Candy’s program bio – from Liars and Lowballers to Dead Man’s Fake – and all they led me to is the Shaw website.
If The Mystery of the Human Heart turns out to be AI generated, that would be a killer twist. But another clue suggests not: Legally required fine print lists the playwright’s agent as Rena Zimmerman at Great North Artists Management in Toronto. Hmm …
To the play itself: It begins with Holmes – played, superbly as always, by Damien Atkins – solving four cases in quick succession in his office at 221B Baker St.
While his powers of deduction seem more powerful than ever, the detective is even more curt and less compassionate than usual – especially to a female client (Sochi Fried) who he figures out has been very intimately tricked.
When Dr. Watson calls Sherlock on his rudeness, it creates a rift between the two – one that cannot be solved even by a cup of tea, served by that keenest of landladies, Mrs. Hudson (Claire Jullien, who, like Reid and Atkins, is returning to the role a third time).
No fear, the two will work it out in this remix of some of Conan Doyle’s original tales such as The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and The Final Problem.
Soon enough, Holmes and Watson are summoned by inspector Lestrade (Sanjay Talwar) to The Serpentine lake, where a human heart has been discovered. It is one of a number of disembodied blood pumpers that soon pop up around London.
Claire Jullien as Mrs. Hudson.Emily Cooper/Shaw Festival
Alas, The Mystery of the Human Heart is not really a mystery at all – a guessing game with suspects and clues; instead, it is a thriller, a genre less well-suited for the stage, pitting Sherlock against his greatest nemesis.
Early on, Sherlock proclaims that he’s figured out that a superintelligent “spider” is behind a vast criminal syndicate. Then, just before the first intermission (there are two in this three-hour play), he finally whispers the expected name: “Moriarty.”
The rest is a cat-and-mouse tale – if the cat and the mouse sat down for tea and monologued at each other. Even a trip to Switzerland is just another opportunity for a chat over a hot beverage. (I heard more than one audible yawn.)
The scenes of deduction have the most life in them, especially those where Holmes is assisted by new characters such as Lestrade’s eager niece Amelia (Rais Clarke-Mendes) and a creepy coroner named Mrs. Allstrüd (Nehassaiu deGannes).
But much of the play might as well have been, and would have moved more quickly and been more effective, as an audio play. Disembodied hearts are more disturbing to think about than to see as props, especially when they look like dog chew toys. The sword fight might have been more thrilling had I not just recently watched Eleanor Harvey become Canada’s first Olympic medalist in fencing.
It’s not really a mystery why the Shaw Festival has been programming these plays. The Sherlock IP drew a big, healthy house on the night I was there. Why not commission a Detective Murdoch play next then – or adapt some Giles Blunt or Louise Penny for the stage? And with a little more theatrical flair, please, so a playwright feels proud enough to put their name on it?