Review: Archive Theater's A Sherlock Holmes Christmas

(l-r) Amado DeHoyos as Dr. Watson, Chris Humphrey as Mrs. Hudson, and Damon Brown as Sherlock Holmes in A Sherlock Holmes Christmas (Photo by Steve Rogers Photography)

The facts are these: About four o'clock on Christmas morning, Peterson was returning from some small jollification and was making his way homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the man's hat. Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his assailants; but the man dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the labyrinth of small streets.

So begins The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in The Strand Magazine in 1892. It goes on to reveal that Peterson was left in possession of the spoils of victory in the shape of this battered hat and "a most unimpeachable Christmas goose" that happened to have a near-priceless blue gemstone in its gullet. Now in Holmes' possession, the master detective must solve the mystery of the jewel's theft using only the hat and goose as clues.

This story has been recently adapted for the stage by Austin's own Jennifer Rose Davis and retitled A Sherlock Holmes Christmas, inspired, it seems, by the tale taking place on Christmas Day and Holmes uncharacteristically allowing the culprit to go free after his confession because "it is the season of forgiveness." Similarly inspired, Archive Theater Director Lynn Schaffer Beaver attempts to turn the production of the play into a holiday season happening by infusing the evening with live pre-show chamber music (directed by Vikki Schwarz and Chris Humphrey), a post-show Christmas carol sing-along led by the cast, and the serving of hot cider at the concession stand. Adding to the Yuletide ambience is that the show is being held in Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms' charming, century-old, wooden Wessels Hall. Holmes' 221B Baker Street sitting room, the wealthy drawing room of aristocrats, and the seedy side of Victorian London are all re-created thanks to a smattering of period set-pieces and props (designed by Davis and Beaver, who also provide proper and impressive costuming), illuminated in turn by basic lighting (designed by Patrick Anthony and Luis Sandoval).

Despite the best efforts of the good folks at the Archive Theater company, there's just not quite enough sentimentality, spiritual salvation, or holiday cheer – the very things that have come to define a traditional Christmas story, thanks in large part to Doyle's fellow Englishman, Charles Dickens – to raise A Sherlock Holmes Christmas above its station as just a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

But this is a very solid staging of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Borrowing heavily from the original text, the playwright finds the perfect balance of Watson's plot-pushing narrative, Holmes' lapses into clever deduction, and quick-paced dialogue between all the characters. It also contains some very witty moments between Holmes (a perfectly dismissive, tight-assed Damon Brown), Watson (a wonderfully playful and accessible Amado DeHoyos), and Holmes' housekeeper Mrs. Hudson (a delightful Chris Humphrey), which the director handles with appropriate subtlety. Members of the supporting cast (Sullivan Brown, Jerry Brown, Robert Stevens, Santiago Facundo III, Christine Bush, and Nathan Daniel Ford) play multiple roles and do so with varying degrees of aplomb. British accents come and go, but things like this can be disregarded. After all, if the typically stoic Holmes can show some empathy during this season of forgiveness, so can we.

Archive Theater's A Sherlock Holmes Christmas