MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B

Arcola Theatre

★★★

“a funny show that does a fine job in entertaining its audience”

It’s clear from the moment actor Tendai Humphrey Sitima comes onstage and welcomes us with his improvised prologue that this is no ordinary Sherlock Holmes narrative. It’s wacky, whimsical and most importantly, it takes place post pandemic. Writer Kate Hamill transports us to…today and brings out a fresh dynamic between the infamous duo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, whose genders have been swapped to female.

Dr. Joan Watson finds herself in a transitional period and is somehow convinced to live with Holmes, a manic and eccentric consulting detective. For Holmes, everything is a puzzle that needs to be solved and she invites Watson in a world of clues, puzzles and mystery. Other well-known characters from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories appear, like Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, Lestrade and of course, Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty. Nothing is what it seems as we join Holmes and Watson in a chase that leaves us breathless.

The relationship between Holmes and Watson has a playful quality and an underlying romantic element, which is never fully acted upon. This is for the best, as the two hours and thirty minute run is not enough to introduce to us to the adapted world, the newly fleshed characters, unpack two mysteries and explore a potential romantic layer in the relationship of the titular characters. It already feels overcrowded and at times tiring, especially towards the end where everything is laid out and plot twist after plot twist are revealed.

Holmes, played by Lucy Farrett, is a ball of peculiar energy, has a flair for the dramatic and uses big gestures with intensely comic facial expressions. It’s an interesting interpretation, but it ignores the character’s genius and leans more to high-stakes comedy. Watson, played by Simona Brown, doesn’t seem to diverge from the same level of tension and frustration with everything that’s happening and Holmes’ behaviour. Tendai Humphrey Sitima and Alice Lucy complete the rest of the cast, playing multiple characters; they both gain laughter from the audience, but the multi rolling gets a tad dull in its overplayed boldness.

Under Sean Turner’s direction, this modern adaptation is what I imagine the movie Clue would look like if the actors were trained in Commedia dell’arte. The physical comedy is entertaining, but there are moments where it feels forced and stagnant. It’d be interesting to see some more variation to help the audience keep up and be genuinely surprised by the script.

One of the most exciting aspects of this production is the hyper-realistic set, an intriguing clutter of items, secret entrances and two levels that provide a visual enhancement to the story. Set designer Max Dorey didn’t hold back and the complicated stage configuration could also be a physical representation of Holmes’ idiosyncratic brain and unusual thought processing. Lighting, by David Howe, and sound, by Hattie North, help immensely with the different locations, as well as with highlighting the comedic tone of the narrative.

It’s a funny show that does a fine job in entertaining its audience, without the need to be particularly familiar with the source material. Yet, there is a lot going on, from the witty jokes, the constant moving around and surprises that seem to never end, and you can’t help but feel exhausted by the time the show ends.

MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B

Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 1st December 2025

by Stephanie Christodoulidou

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THIS LITTLE EARTH | ★★★★ | October 2025

CROCODILE FEVER | ★★★ | October 2025

THE POLTERGEIST | ★★★★★ | September 2025

RODNEY BLACK: WHO CARES? IT’S WORKING | ★★ | September 2025

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: THE MUSICAL | ★★★★ | August 2025

JANE EYRE | ★★★★★ | August 2025

CLIVE | ★★★ | August 2025

THE RECKONING | ★★★★ | June 2025

MS. HOLMES

★★★★

“All three actors have wonderful chemistry together, expressing a totally believable fraternal bond.”

Movement in theatre can often feel forced in an attempt to be Avant Garde. Cringe-inducing lyrical movement to show passion or staccato twitching under strobe to show something dark. In Now I See, Lanre Malaolu’s second play in what will be a trilogy as writer, director and movement director, modern black British masculinity is explored in a style of storytelling that naturally and organically interweaves narrative and movement to enhance the drama.

Set at the funeral of one of three brothers, the play is mostly a two hander between the remaining siblings, interspersed with flashbacks to a youth spent playing rough, making up dance routines, and impersonating the Power Rangers. A low-res hum of afro beats provides constant background music (sound design Pär Carlsson), cut with contemporary Black British pop and R&B to accompany some of the more involved moments of movement. Kieron (Oliver Alvin-Wilson) and Dayo (Nnabiko Ejimofor) appear not to have had much of a relationship in recent years, the cause for which is side stepped around and never addressed head on. What is clear is that the onset of sickle cell anaemia for their brother, Adeyeye (Tendai Humphrey Sitima) led to the issues between the brothers and the rest of the family. It’s fitting, then, that the remembrance of Adeyeye’s life should act as a healing experience for them.

Malaolu’s movement expresses emotion – joy, pain, relief – where words fail; enhancing the drama, rather than distracting. Set and staging (Igrid Hu) further complement the movement with a recurring rippling motif extending from drapery across the proscenium arch through to water filling a perspex coffin ever present downstage. In one particularly effective moment Alvin-Wilson as Kieron describes a dream he has had about a bird, a metaphor for his own deep buried pain. Under dim lighting, Nnabiko Ejimofor crosses down stage as the bird, taking slow timid steps before his movement becomes larger and more erratic, visualising the nightmarish quality of Kieron’s dream sequence.

All three actors have wonderful chemistry together, expressing a totally believable fraternal bond. Alvin-Wilson is the gruff, strong man. The eldest brother ground down by life. Who has hardened his exterior to protect against the cruel world and bad luck he has been dealt. Ejimofor is younger, more hopeful, trusting. He embodies the bookish stereotype of a man in touch with his emotions and perceptive to those of others. Tendai Humphrey Sitima as Adeyeye is largely silent in his role as the deceased brother, other than for occasional voice overs. This makes his perhaps the most difficult role of the three, never off stage but hardly at the centre of the drama; a constant presence circling his brothers haunting them or being haunted by them.

This all seems rather dark, but the cast seems to be enjoying themselves so much delivering the witty lines that more than once more than one actor can’t hold it together. Malaolu’s early successes may have been through movement and dance but this piece shows his talents as a writer, despite a slightly over indulgent climactic clash between the brothers in the second act. The script is surprisingly funny and warm for a play about grief and family trauma. But it’s through the smart delivery that the specificity written into the characters comes to life.

Tag Archives: Tendai Humphrey Sitima

MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B

★★★

Arcola Theatre

MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B

Arcola Theatre

★★★

“a funny show that does a fine job in entertaining its audience”