Sunday, August 08, 2004

Day 2: 5:30 Timeslot

Show: Sherlock Holmes: Murder at the Abbey Grange
Die Roll: 11
Location: Minneapolis Theatre Garage
Company: Hard Cover Theatre

In all honesty, I've avoided prior shows by Hardcover Theatre. Mostly because I didn't like any of the things that they were adapting. But, I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, so I'm glad this one came up. Mark Steven Jackson's adaptation was good, solid, and entertaining.

Sherlock Holmes was played by Tim McGivern who maintained an odd, not quite British accent, but played the aloof Holmes well anyway. Steve Lewis, who once played the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show at the old Phoenix Playhouse, did an admirable job as Dr. Watson. Watson was the narrator in this, too.

The narration of the story mirrorer the method of Watson being Holmes's Biographer. It lent the play toward a heavy use of Flashback, which I've never seen so frequently and effectively done. The Director, Natalie Diem, did a good job of blending the flashback scenes and the presnt ones on stage at the same time.

I once saw John Lilleberg as Holmes in a Pigs Eye Theatre production, but in this Hardcover Production Lilleberg was a bastard of a wife-beater, and the murder victim. He did a great job.

All in all a great production that I would've paid more to see away from the Fringe. Only annoying thing: The constant soundtrack of background music, as if I was watching a made-for-tv PBS adaptation.

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