A SHERLOCK CAROL at the Marylebone Theatre

★★★★

“one of the cleverest and most entertaining of the current festive productions”

Sherlock Holmes was just thirty-seven years old when he was reported to have died in the Reichenbach Falls in 1891; having fallen to his death in a struggle with the criminal mastermind Moriarty. The sleuth reappeared three years later, however, to resume his detective business, but becomes filled with self-doubt and slips into semi-retirement. Meanwhile, not too many yards away from 221b Baker Street, Ebenezer Scrooge is enjoying his twilight years. Nearly fifty years on from his spirit induced epiphany one Christmas Eve, he remains a respected and admired member of society, frequently visited by his close friend and beneficiary, Dr Timothy Cratchit.

It is no surprise then, that these individuals’ paths should cross as the nineteenth century is drawing to its close. There is no historical evidence to the contrary, so the events that occur in Mark Shanahan’s ingeniously clever and witty play, “A Sherlock Carol”, are entirely plausible. If a little bonkers. After all, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Okay, the sceptical among you will be clamouring to remind me that these are fictional people, but I say ‘Humbug’ to that – let’s suspend our disbelief.

It seems that ‘A Christmas Carol’ is everywhere, so this is a perfect antidote to relieve the bloated overindulgence of Dickens at this time of year. A glorious mash up, it is recognisable as both ‘A Christmas Carol’, and as ‘Sherlock Holmes’, but the crossover is so tightly packed that characters and characteristics are well and truly mixed up. The styles as untangleable as last year’s decorations brought down from the loft.

“The cast can barely keep the smile from their faces, yet each and every one is a master at characterisation”

Holmes (Ben Caplan) is a haunted, cantankerous scrooge, insulting carol singers and bleating misanthropically at all the merry makers on Christmas Eve. He rudely shuns Watson’s (Richard James) invitation to join him for Christmas lunch. Enjoying (or rather not particularly enjoying) a melancholy drink in a melancholy tavern his solitude is interrupted by Doctor Timothy Cratchit (Devesh Kishore) who implores him, unsuccessfully, to investigate the mysterious death of Scrooge (Kammy Darweish). Holmes famously doesn’t believe in ghosts, but is nevertheless visited by a spectral Scrooge in the form of the ghost of Christmas past, present and future rolled into one. Reinvigorated he then decides to take on Cratchit’s case. A case that involves a precious blue diamond, a misplaced goose, poisoned candles, a recalcitrant maid, a bumbling Inspector Lestrade, a young Fezziwig and quite a few elementaries. Don’t ask me! Go and figure it out for yourself. You certainly won’t regret it.

The cast can barely keep the smile from their faces, yet each and every one is a master at characterisation, many of them grappling with multiple personas. Virtuosity and comedy are as intertwined as the plotlines. There is a Victorian music hall quality to it all, with the story telling and the performances taking centre stage with no reliance on modern trickery or high budget effects. Yet at the same time there is a timeless and modern quality to the presentation that appeals to all. Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle and of Charles Dickens will love it. So will newcomers. And non-fans. That covers all, I think.

At one point Watson laments the fact that Sherlock is ‘not the man I thought he was’. He hits the nail on the head. Except that this is nothing to lament, but to celebrate instead. “A Sherlock Carol” is certainly not the Sherlock you’d think it to be. Nor the Christmas Carol. But it is one of the cleverest and most entertaining of the current festive productions. You don’t need a detective’s skills to discover that. Just the ability to find Baker Street on Google Maps. And enjoy it. ‘Come, the game is afoot!’.