| Dom Henry went to see Holmes and the Ripper at the Theatre Royal |
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Now in its 20th year, the ever popular Classic Thriller Season from Colin Mcintyre and company has kicked off its ‘five shows in five weeks’ run at the Theatre Royal with a multiple murder mystery. The grisly serial killings of prostitutes and vulnerable women in Victorian Whitechapel, dubbed by the popular press as the work of "Jack the Ripper" are the talk of London, and from deep within the smog ridden slums a piercing shreik is heard, classic thriller fare indeed. So, the show unfolds and we are transported to the smokey London streets via a set of subdued grey shapes, outlines and steps. Amongst these moodily lit environs the small cast do a great job of conveying the oppressive atmosphere of a London living in fear, as the characters of the Victorian street slip hurridly through the murk, all well supported with adept directional lighting and suitable background sounds. Enter Holmes, with Watson in tow, drawn into one of the darkest plots ever to shake the foundations of England, complete with freemasons, conspiracies and plots at the highest level of the establishment. Permission for monacle to fall out in astonishment granted. This is not your regular Sherlock Holmes yarn, being written by screenwriter Brian Clements who notably penned TVs the Avengers. Much more racey in its plotlines, the story gets stuck into one of the more interesting Ripper conspiracy theories and features a Holmes far more fallible than the one from the Conan Doyle books. There is even a love interest for Holmes in the form of an attractive clairvoyant, a Clairvoyant! Egad sir! Sherlock Holmes is given an engaging human touch by Nicholas Briggs, bringing a human frailty to our pipe chomping, cocaine injecting cerebral hero. Who, in this incarnation, is quiet capable of making a few gaffs here and there and having a distant mushy moment or two. Holme’s longstanding sidekick and confident Watson is played by Adrian Lloyd-James in endearing old bluffer form. Whose rosy nosed manner and general bumbling belies the fact that he’s always on hand with his service revolver when the chips are down. Other parts of note included Karen Henson as Holme’s long suffering housekeeper Mrs Hudson, played with a matronly working class sheen and Jeremy Lloyd-Thomas with his glinting mania of Sir William Gull. Good performances all round. Once the show got into its stride I thoroughly enjoyed it, the atmosphere and characters were well developed and this little known story is new and interesting, even for a DVD toting Holmes fan such as myself. Well worth a look, plus if you lay down your lolly for all five plays they work at at £11 each. The games afoot. Holmes and the Ripper runs from Monday 4 to Saturday 8 August at the Theatre Royal The next show in the series is Deadly Nightcap by Francis Durbridge which runs from Monday August 11 to Saturday August 16 2008. Read our interview with Colin Mcintyre
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