Sherlock Holmes on stage next week

By Cheranka Mendis

With a fresh take on old characters, Silent Hands Creative Circle is all set to present Lange’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Secret Life,’ a mystery thriller, next weekend (14-16 June) at the Lionel Wendt Colombo.

A mysterious lady (with amnesia) and a criminal professor appear at Baker Street on the same day and the detective duo Holmes and Dr. Watson must untangle a web of lies to discover the truth behind the beautiful Marianna and Professor Moriarty. Who is she? Is she who she says she is or is she a dangerous spy sent by a mysterious force to topple the British Government?

What will unravel on stage is a tale that tests the loyalty and friendship of the legendary pair in an effective use of stage space and a good balance of physical and verbal comedy guaranteed to make an enjoyable performance.

The first production under the Creative Circle, a division of sorts from Silent Hands Productions aiming to bring to life more serious and unique plays, breaking away from the comedies that have taken over local theaters in the past, the play is directed by Jehan Bastians and produced by Javin Thomas and Billam Poulier.

Brought to life by an exceptional cast, Anurudha Fernando plays Old Dr. Watson, Shanaka Amarasinghe plays Sherlock Holmes while Neidra Williams will take on the role of Mrs. Hudson. Viran Corea will get into the character of Inspector Lestrade while Andre Perera will take on the role of Dr. John Watson. The beautiful Roshni Gunaratne will play the mysterious Marianna ‘Smith’ while Avishka De Alwis and Lauren Williams-Bastians will play Sergent Bellingham and Molly respectively.

With the play being the first for Creative Circle, it is also a premier for the local theater loving audience as the play has never been performed I Sri Lanka before.

Neidra Williams told the Weekend FT that the play was an ideal choice in establishing Creative Circle, which will look into different genres such as dark theatre, thrillers, mysteries and musicals.

“Because of the choice of plays we have picked to perform, the name Silent Hands Productions have been synonymous with comedy and fast theatre,” she said. “Creative Circle is an attempt to experiment with other genres and give theatre lovers a new experience to enjoy and mull over.”

Starting with William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in 2003 followed by one of their very own work ‘The Legend of Excalibur’ in 2004, Silent Hands was also the drivers and performers behind the much popular ‘Yes Hon. Minister’ (2007, 2012), ‘Tom, Dick & Harry’ (2008), ‘Boeing Boeing’ (2009), ‘Move over Mrs. Markham’(2009), ‘Leading Ladies’ (2011), and ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ (2013).

In 2010, Silent Hands got together with St. Peter’s College to bring to life the ever-popular and legendary classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ as a musical and is set to end this year with a Christmas Musical ‘Christmas Wish – The Musical’ in collaboration with St. Peter’s College yet again.

Unlike in previous plays, Sherlock Holmes features three expert actors – Anurudha Fernando, Shanaka Amarasinghe and Viran Corea. The main intention behind Creative Circle is to get creative and to work in a collaborative manner in terms of plays they hope to produce, drawing in inspiration and input of expert actors who are not part of the immediate SHP family, Williams said.

“They have brought their own style and genre and by combining this with our style have been able to come up with a better enriched play,” she added. “It is nice to see different ways of approaching a script, the different collaborative attempts, etc. This is where the creativity comes in and adds value to the end production.”

The two-hour show will start at 7:30 p.m. on all three days and tickets are priced at Rs. 1,500, Rs. 1,000, Rs. 750, and Rs. 500.00 (balcony) and are available at the Lionel Wendt theatre.