At the moment, we are currently in-between great Sherlock Holmes'. The late and highly lamented Jeremy Brett was a definitive Consulting Detective, as were Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone in their respective eras. Excepting Ian Richardson, a partially successful 80s Holmes turned entertaining Joseph Bell in Murder Rooms, there's no one currently defining Conan Doyle's timeless creation.
A perfect opportunity then, to take the character in a whole new direction. The Portsmouth-based Battered Suitcase Theatre Company are soon to present a brand-new adventure: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEVIL'S TALLYMAN. We at GCUK, having seen a previous production of theirs, and being card-carrying admirers of 221B Baker Street's resident sleuth, wanted to know all about it. Luckily, Battered Suitcase's Ian Wheeler, the writer/co-director/actor playing Holmes, agreed to satisfy this curiosity.
The Battered Suitcase Theatre Company was set up, according to Wheeler, to "try and do interesting things you might not otherwise see." They've a pretty distinguished track record already, including two new DOCTOR WHO adventures and an adaptation of the classic Vincent Price movie THEATRE OF BLOOD. They supplement their income with Murder Mystery Dinners, a perfect training ground for theatrical detective fiction, and also a nice way of getting a free slap-up meal.
The decision to do a new Holmes adventure "seemed like a good idea at the time", having evolved from an idea that Ian has now discounted: "I was going to make Conan Doyle himself the villain and stick Houdini it, both of which ideas were cheerfully thrown out the window once I'd got it through my head they were A Bit Crap". Instead, he's gone for an approach that is laudable in its aims, and, if achieved, will make for a compelling story. "The trick" he argues, "has been to distil the essence of Holmes - his isolation as a character, the elements that make the stories and re-present them in a way people aren't necessarily expecting, not just throw together a pastiche of the stories and endlessly repeat 'Once you have eliminated the impossible...' etc."
When casting the title role, Ian didn't look any further than his bathroom mirror,
The "Devil's Tallyman" of the title is a kind of Edwardian computer, "a mechanical brain whose gears and flywheels can shatter any code". The theft of this device, and the murder of it's creator is the crime that needs solving. Of course, as with any first-rate detective story it's the manner of finding the solution rather than the answer itself where the piece succeeds or fails. Ian seems well aware of this. His view is that "an important part of the Holmes stories is the inference of fact and event from evidence, and its just pulp rubbish otherwise."
Further grounds for optimism come when you consider what a good job the Battered Suitcase company have made of a similar enterprise, a brand new Doctor Who play called Vox Dei. This was produced in April 2001 at their base of operations, The New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, and was greatly enjoyed by myself and my esteemed colleague, Paul Monk. Intriguingly, just two weeks before the Holmes play, the Bedlam Theatre Company are doing an adaptation of a missing Doctor Who story from the Patrick Troughton era, Fury from the Deep, at the same venue!
Ian is quick to differentiate the two organisations. He describes the rival Doctor Who effort as "grindingly respectful" and is less than complimentary about the Bedlam personnel. "Rob Thrush is okay (he runs Bedlam, writes and directs) and I'm hiring my video projector to him for Fury From The Deep. We're probably too similar to ever be best mates and I think we probably share a wary and polite belief that what we're doing is actually the best. I don't have much time for Nick Scovell, who writes, directs and acts. He seems too keen to slap 'An New Play by...' all over his posters for my liking and frankly his work is mostly cliché and exposition - he penned the immortal line 'though young I am advanced in age ...' At the risk of sticking my head up my own arse, I'd say you can't just trot genre stuff out without challenging or tweaking it in some way. It's just lazy otherwise. We're not best mates."
GCUK is going to keep an eye on both companies because they are, in different ways, innovating a way round the curse of "quality" that makes much British Film, TV and theatre so ridiculously sterile. Next up for Battered Suitcase is another Doctor Who play, Warsmith, two more Murder Dinners, a three-man comedy Dracula and an audio sci-fi serial. Furthermore, for those not that keen to travel to Portsmouth (Southampton residents and suchlike), Ian hopes to take Dracula on tour at some point.
We wish him and his company every success. So much so, in fact, that four of us will be travelling down the A3 on Saturday 13th April in the hope, and even expectation, of being downright entertained. If you feel like joining us, here are some details:
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SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEVIL'S TALLYMAN
Wednesday 10th to Saturday 13th April 2002, 7.45pm, Saturday Matinee 3pm at the NEW THEATRE ROYAL Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth. Circle Tickets £7.50 (£6.50 Concessions), Stalls Tickets £5.50 (£4.50 Concessions) Box Office 023 9264 9000
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LINKS
Battered Suitcase - www.batteredsuitcase.co.uk
New Theatre Royal - www.newtheatreroyal.co.uk
Bedlam - www.btinternet.com/~furyfromthedeep
Chris Denton.
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