Preview: Holmes for Rent

Holmes for Rent is an English adaptation of Christian Blex’s German language musical Sherlock H. The English adaptation has been co-written by Christian Blex and Jack Plummer and reworked by director Robin Kendall for the Edinburgh Fringe. The show’s humour is heavily influenced by classic British comedies like Blackadder, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and with a few touches of the Carry On films.

While anchored in the style of Victorian Music Hall in keeping with Conan Doyle’s world, the music is borrowed, stolen and grafted from all time periods and places. In a whimsical celebration of many musical forms, Blex’s composing encompasses aspects of musical theatre, operetta, barbershop, tango and even, at one point, rap.

Holmes was first performed as part of a new work funding initiative run by Music Theatre Warwick and then re-cast and reworked for the Warwick Student Arts Festival. For the Edinburgh Fringe festival, with a slot length of roughly an hour, the script, plot and characters have been condensed and reworked extensively to allow for the Edinburgh setting.

Holmes begins in a battered, downtrodden theatre, with the even more battered and downtrodden figure of Dr John Watson (Ollie Yeats-Brown). The man is preparing to read from his book ‘Holmes for Rent’, to reveal a secret outlining the true circumstances of the life of the peoples’ hero, Sherlock Holmes (Rob Madge). With a flourish and the sense of a huge chip being lifted from his shoulders, Watson reveals his earth-shattering secret. Sherlock Holmes, the infamous detective, is not quite the genius that he appears. It is suddenly revealed that Doctor Watson is in fact the brains behind the operations of 221b Baker Street.

The cast, raring to go. Image: Music Theatre Warwick.

The gathered audience are told the story of how Watson employed ‘Rich Brooks’, the narcissistic out of work actor, to hide his true identity from the villains of the London Underworld. What follows is the core plot of the piece – an extended flashback that revolves around the disappearance of Mr. Adler (Elliot Gale), the city’s leading jewel specialist. Thus, the play within a play unfolds.

Smitten with Mr. Adler’s daughter Irene (Emily Taylor), Holmes becomes (to the intense frustration of Watson) increasingly unaware of the dark web being woven around him by his dastardly antagonist, Moriarty (Fred Kelly) and his three henchwomen: Mackie (Ellie Sterland), Jackie (Keeleigh Tedford) and Beckie (Rachel Elfassy-Bitoun). Time moves swiftly on and Holmes and Watson find themselves trapped in Moriarty’s lair, caught right at the centre of Moriarty’s plot to take over London through its unstable monarchy.

Of course, we won’t give away the ending because it would completely spoil the fun. But we can say that there will be betrayal, chaos, love and many tears. Above all, there will be a huge amount of mystery, inexplicable until the final moment. It becomes apparent in the final scene that Moriarty may not quite be what he seems. The true identity of Moriarty becomes a point of great contention that not even the great Holmes and Watson can figure out. There is one final puzzle to solve, but with the eight alternative endings come eight alternative versions of Moriarty. This approach to ending the performance has been written especially for the Fringe production and is chosen at random by the audience each night. With this approach, who knows what sorts of secrets can be hiding around the corner?

The director, Robin Kendall, when asked to say how he feels about the show moving to Edinburgh after a positively received run at Warwick University in 2015, says that he is very nervous but also extremely excited. “The hardest part of the Fringe, particularly for a new show, is to establish a positive reputation within your first week so that word about it travels and people keep coming back. So there’s a lot of pressure, particularly in the first few days. There are always the pre-show butterflies as well, but they give you your energy, so I guess nerves have their positive side as well.” He adds: “There is a different ending each night, with a new Moriarty getting announced at the end each time, so hopefully people will wish to come back and see the other alternate endings! In addition, I’d hope they will have had a good few laughs and have enjoyed an hour of beautifully sung nonsense.”

Holmes for Rent will be performed at C Venue 34 from the 3rd to the 29th of August (except for the 15th) at 3:15 pm. Tickets are on sale here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/holmes-for-rent. If you want to know more about the show check their website http://www.holmesforrent.com or their Facebook page.

Greta April