Puzzlemeisters in a puzzling world: ‘Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson: Apt. 2B’ at ICTRep
Through the frenzy of Kate Hamill’s newest Sherlock Holmes adaptation, presented this weekend only by Wichita Repertory Theatre, women put together the puzzle pieces — and lift each another up.
For all the methods by which Kate Hamill’s “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson: Apt. 2B” does or does not portray the iconic characters that Arthur Conan Doyle created 137 years ago, her refreshing and necessary take on feminism might be the play’s most, well, elementary component.
The feminism of Hamill’s newest play slips in with sly ingenuity and through deep layers, presenting itself not so much through individuals modeling the feminist ideal as through the relationships — with each other and with themselves — that they enact and that they discover right along with the audience. Indeed, the two-plus hours of this alleged farce (parody? parable? slapstick?) is not so much “about” feminism as it is feminism. It’s in the ether, the air the players breathe, unproclaimed because it’s assumed. The characters are fish, the “feminism” is the water they splash in.
That is the most interesting — and, in these times, the most crucial — element in this play and in this production. And more important to this reviewer, it is also the most successful aesthetically.
Also particularly striking is the play’s social and political commentary — including in the (deserved) contempt of Americans expressed by the (also ridiculously flawed) English regarding pretty much everything, from our lowbrow tastes to our anti-intellectualism. But “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson,” already prescient, was written before November 5, 2024; its commentary is even sharper — and more devastating — today.
The play opens with a send-up of the classic foggy-London setting, a black-cloaked narrator (Jackson Dorris) informing the audience of the play they are about to witness before being interrupted and flung into, as we’re told, a stripped-down, low-budget version of the Holmes legend set not in the London of Victorian England but in that city in 2021, post-COVID. (Or, as stated in the program of ICTRep’s production, “Today. And also Spring 2021.”)
What follows are introductions of Holmes’ famous landlady, Mrs. Hudson (Baylee Braswell, outstanding in one of several delicious roles) and Joan Watson (Tessa Seybert, performing with integrity and — when the script allows it — both subtlety and depth). Braswell’s and Seybert’s assured comic performances climbing multiple flights of “stairs” via two doors set the stage for what proves to be equally confident work by the entire cast and crew.
Quickly established is the raison d’être of this variation on the famous duo: Watson is an American who, lost at sea after an as-yet-undetected past trauma, has come to London to find herself.
In Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, "the characters are fish, the 'feminism' is the water they splash in, writes our critic. Actors Tessa Sebert, Baylee Brasswell, Charlene Grinsell each deliver strong performances that underscore the play's theme. Photo courtesy of ICTRep
Once Watson is introduced to her “roommate? friend? something more?” the action’s intensity ratchets up to 110 percent, especially regarding its titular detective, performed by Charlene Grinsell, who moans, pounces, assumes Delsarte-esque poses with an almost rabid furiosity, climbs couches, and engages in vigorous swordplay, per directions from the playwright. Grinsell’s meticulously developed work is always abundantly committed to whatever decisions have been made about her characters — by the playwright, the director, and/or herself — and that dedication is on full display here. Over the course of the show, all the actors engage likewise in high-octane vocal and physical pyrotechnics.
Striking lighting and sound effects aid and abet the madcap race — at one point literal, in a very funny montage of running-in-place enactments of classic Holmes cases, snakes and feathers and other tell-tale props flung at the pair like rice at a wedding. The repetition of an intense light motif each time Holmes explains the solution to a puzzle deftly offers exposition along with theatricality.
But starting at maximum speed leaves no room for growth, and oftentimes the frenetic dancing and shouting wear thin. More concerning, the exact nature of all that frenzy muddles: Are we watching a frothy comedy? Broad slapstick? Straight-up farce? Winking homage stuffed with Easter eggs for Sherlock Holmes fanatics? Can all of the above play nicely in one show?
Much more satisfying are the play’s all-too-infrequent tender moments, particularly in a scene establishing the plot’s — and Holmes’ — primary puzzle: Joan Watson herself. Holmes immediately susses out early truths Watson has hidden. But the allegedly unfeeling detective wants it all. What is behind Watson’s panic attacks? What is it that has hurt Holmes’s ... friend? These two women, in addition to those beautifully performed by Braswell, are complicated people, as pleasing to puzzle out as are the mysteries they chase. I personally would have happily lost the slapstick and a good deal of the farce for these genuinely fresh characters and for their moments of connection, played straight and with a lot of heart when the actors are given the opportunity.
Jackson Dorris, the fourth cast member, performs with his usual care and panache the multiple characters (alas, closer to caricatures) that he has been handed. A chorus of men, including Sky Duncan, Matthew Gwinner, and Chris Welborn, the latter also in a notably athletic turn as a dead body, dress the stage nicely. Julie Longhofer’s scenic design is competent but disappointing (the clutter repeatedly referenced is strikingly absent in the spare collection of furniture and doors).
On the other hand, Longhofer’s strong, well-executed direction delivers beautiful staging and cohesive ensemble performances of a stylistically inconsistent script. Emily Redfield’s fight choreography shines throughout, and Longhofer’s outlandish costumes — particularly a prominent skin-tight red gown — are perfect.
The Details
ICTRep (Wichita Reperatory Theatre) presents “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson: Apt. 2B”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 14, Friday, November 15, Sunday, November 17, and 2 p.m. Saturday, November 16 at Welsbacher Theatre at the Wichita State Metropolitan Complex (Entrance F), 5015 E. 29th St. N.
$30; discounts are available
Freelancer Anne Welsbacher edits Well-Worded and writes plays, fiction, nonfiction, and book and theatre reviews.
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