Dallas — Sherlock Holmes, that paragon of contemplative sleuthery, has been treated to nontraditional portrayals recently. Cases in point: a 2009 movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as a brawling Holmes and, currently, a downright boisterous Sherlock Holmes in the Crucifer of Blood, kicking off the 2010-'11 Main Stage season at Theatre Three.
Director/designer Jeffrey Schmidt and lead player Chuck Huber conspire to present Paul Giovanni's 1978 play as equal parts mystery and melodrama. Schmidt's staging is at the gallop, and his set design is splashed with garish colors, given an eerie shimmer by Amanda West's lighting. The overall look is a tip of the deerstalker to the steampunk movement of the 1980s. (Think Jules Verne channeling Dr. Frankenstein.)
A prologue set in India during an 1887 rebellion introduces murder, conspiracy, betrayal and a treasure that comes, naturally, with a curse. Flash to 1887 London, where Holmes' drug use is addressed early and blatantly. While his associate and biographer, Dr. Watson, (Austin Tindle, wandering in and out of an English accent) voices disapproval, the beautiful and distraught young Irene bursts into the Baker Street digs and pleads for the detective's help. Her father is one of the curse victims, and the whole affair has wrecked his life. (At this point, audience members know more than Holmes, courtesy of that intro scene.)
Playwright Giovanni furnished plenty of humor potential, which Schmidt and his cast exploit gleefully. Whereas Nigel Bruce's bumbling Watson was the comic foil of those Basil Rathbone movies, the resident buffoon here is Lestrade, the Scotland Yard inspector who misreads every clue and then takes credit for Holmes' crime solving. Jakie Cabe is a droll delight in the role. Costume designer Aaron Patrick Turner dresses Cabe in a joke of an outfit, thus adding punch to Huber's comment: "Your methods are as subtle as your tailor."
Hilary Couch is alluring and vulnerable as Irene, melting gullible Watson's heart, even as we in the audience wonder if this distressed damsel is more than she seems. As the principal curse-ees, Gregory Lush and Aaron Roberts play to the hilt. Roberts even gets to writhe about in an opium den.
Visual elements partner with acting here, to excellent effect. Makeup rarely merits a separate design credit, but Kristin Colaneri's work does, particularly the aging of Roberts and Lush. Another nifty touch is the weaponry design of Caleb Winter Massey.
By way of background: The actual Arthur Conan Doyle story on which Crucifer is based is The Sign of the Four. Giovanni's Crucifer opened on Broadway in 1978 with Paxton Whitehead of the Beyond the Fringe troupe as Holmes and Glenn Close (yeah, really!) as Irene. A subsequent Los Angeles staging starred Charlton Heston as Holmes, and that led to a 1981 movie directed by the actor's son, Fraser Clarke Heston.
