Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B by Kate Hamill, the most produced playwright in the country for the 2024-2025 theater season, is a gender swapped modern take on Sherlock Holmes. Hamill’s works are usually adaptations of classic stories often created with an eye towards creating great roles for female identifying actors. Many of her plays center on female driven stories with her multiple Jane Austen adaptations as well as others with strong female protagonists like The Scarlet Letter and Little Women. Here she has taken one of the great characters of Western literatureand crafted it into a delightfully comedic retelling that gives women a chance to step into the iconic roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. (not a Dr.) Watson. I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and will more or less see anything that features that character. The wonderful thing about being a Sherlockian is there has been so many books, stage, and screen adaptations that one finds it nearly impossible to be a slave to canon. In fact, the Guinness World Records lists Holmes as the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. So a gender swapped modern retelling like this, for me, is just another fun way to explore a favorite hero. If the play had been bad, I would criticize it but not for daring to make Holmes and Watson female or for bringing the story into the 21st century. Thankfully the script is smart and fun without making fun of the characters.
The play adapts three of the classic Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet, A Scandal in Bohemia, and The Final Problem. Along with the now female Holmes and Watson we see several other famous characters from Doyle’s stories, Irene Adler, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson, all of whom retain their original gender. Aside from the gender changes and modernization, the play takes place in a post pandemic London, the biggest change comes in the relationship between Holmes and Watson. As in A Study in Scarlet, the play opens with the meeting of the iconic pair as Watson looks for lodgings in London. But here, Holmes is so difficult that Watson spends most of the first half of Act 1 trying not to move into the flat while Mrs. Hudson tries to convince her to stay as she has a hard time getting anyone to room with Holmes. Holmes is played with a controlled but manic energy and air of emotional detachment by Kathryn Cesarz that allows for broad comedy while also capturing the essence of the character. Mary Margaret Hughes plays Watson who gets woozy around blood, the unknown cause of which provides Sherlock with a side mystery to try and unravel throughout the play. The cast is rounded out by Lindsey Fry and Jesse March. Fry plays an array of characters from the frazzled and put upon Mrs. Hudson to the seductive and entrancing Irene Adler, whichever role there’s no denying that see demands our attention whenever she’s on stage. March plays the Narrator, Lestrade and a few other characters, he’s very good in every role, but some of my favorite moments of his come during the Scene changes.
Traci Ledford directs the show upon David Markson’s set which is a marvel of versatility. The locations change several times throughout the show and while the scene changes do take a little while, it’s played for laughs and becomes an entertaining aspect of the play. We see actors and stage hands waiting impatiently for someone to come and left the other end of a couch. The actors smiling at the audience as they wheel the door they just walked through to another area of the stage so they can enter another room through that door. Sometimes they ham up the moving of something with a few dance steps. Ledford finds smart and funny ways to add splashes of comedy to every aspect of the production and Markson’s set contains many surprises. Jesse March does triple duty as Sound Designer and Fight Choreographer, which features some very slapstick swordplay and slaps.
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B runs through July 6th at the Historic Auditorium of St. Croix Falls in St. Croix Falls, WI. Granted this is a little out of my jurisdiction being in WI, but I assure you the review is legal, I filed all of the appropriate paperwork for the excursion. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.festivaltheatre.org/ms-holmes–ms-watson-apt-2b.html
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