The first offering of this year’s Summer Season  at the beautiful Regents Park Open Air Theatre is a new take on a Sherlock Holmes case and the game is certainly afoot!

On what was a very cold night at Regents Park, Conan Doyle’s famous detective, portrayed here by the Rik Mayall-esque Joshua James, has a case to crack featuring a jewel conspiracy which started in India many years ago. Together with his well-known accomplice Watson (Jyuddah Jaymes), the pair must uncover the secrets of the mystery and discover why arrests have been made incorrectly and who is behind the murders.

Visually, the show is difficult to fault. The open-air setting becomes part of the storytelling, especially in the darker scenes where the creeping evening atmosphere adds genuine tension. The staging is generally inventive & fluid and there are moments that briefly hint at the sharper production this could have been.

Disappointingly, Joel Horwood’s script is heavy on exposition and frankly over complicated. I’m sure fans of mystery would love to solve some of the puzzles themselves but sadly, we aren’t given much of a chance here with frantic storytelling and confusing narratives. Sean Holmes’ direction sees James’ Sherlock being played at a hundred miles per hour which, although an obvious and clever choice, makes the wordy script even harder to digest. Holmes does make use of the whole space wonderfully though with real trees being rustled all around us and a lovely fight scene happening at the rear of the auditorium. There’s also a nice circus sequence in the second act but it does feel shoehorned, as do the random movement sequences and the strange idea of featuring animal heads here and there throughout. 

Elena Peña’s sound design is a highlight, aiding the production beautifully and Grace Smart’s set design is also simple yet effective.

The final twist provided a few gasps from the audience but lands with more confusion rather than shock to most. The lack of wit and comedy from the text is the main disappointment here, together with the increasingly convoluted plot which should be far more compelling than it is.

It’s an intriguing night at the theatre but they sadly haven’t fully cracked the case.

⭐️⭐️⭐️