Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear review an elegant last adventure | Theatre
Theatre This article is more than 1 year oldReviewSherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear review – an elegant last adventure
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Effectively filmed for streaming audiences in a sharply told adaptation, this adventure stars Luke Barton as the bumptious master detective
“If this is to be our final adventure …” says Holmes to Watson pointedly in this adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s final novel about the detective duo. Blackeyed Theatre’s production, filmed at the Wilde theatre in Bracknell, is currently on tour but also available to watch online. Adapted and directed by Nick Lane, it works with the usual tropes: a murder, a manor house and a coded letter that sets Holmes and Watson off the blocks. But a parallel story, set among a thuggish “Secret Society” in the Pennsylvanian Vermissa Valley gives it an unusual twist.
The stories run alongside each other and the Pennsylvania strand looks like a cross between Gangs of New York and Gunfight at the OK Corral – but more comic when we learn its murderous tentacles have reached Tunbridge Wells. Typing up the final case summary, even Watson observes: “The two tales lack a cohesive conclusion.” But the production is an elegant one nonetheless.
Luke Barton’s Holmes – young, bushy-tailed – has the air of a supercilious clever clogs, reminding Watson he is always 10 steps ahead. The latter, played by Joseph Derrington, seems like a tweedy sidekick who takes the putdowns graciously. But Barton and Derrington build chemistry, having played the duo before, and infuse their pairing with intensity; Watson takes Holmes to task in one scene which switches the dynamic and Holmes expresses admiration for him in a rare, if understated, show of emotion.
Holmes has a brief, potent encounter with Moriarty (Gavin Molloy) in a pacier second half. The cast (including Alice Osmanski and Blake Kubena) double up in roles across the plotlines and their agile performances give the production its bounce.
Visually it works well on film, with closeups and cuts that bring dramatic focus (film direction by Alex Harvey-Brown). Victoria Spearing’s set has a William Morris-style design on the walls and rays of sunlight across oak floorboards (lighting design by Oliver Welsh). It reminds us that this final instalment is being narrated by the ever faithful Watson and delivered from the Baker Street study, a final case solved, even if it brings an ambivalent happy ending.
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