LOGAN – Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to mystery stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson?
Guess again.
The Theatre Arts Department at Utah State University will be giving those famous detectives a decidedly female twist when it premieres Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B on Friday, Oct. 4 at the Caine Lyric Theatre in downtown Logan.
The running gag in the 2021 play by Kate Hamill — which the playwright cheerfully admits is a desecration of the stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle — is that Holmes and Watson have undergone a gender flip and are investigating crime in modern London rather than during the 1890s.
An actress as well as a playwright, Hamill is deeply passionate about creating female-centered stage adaptations of classic works. In the darkly comic Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, the detectives are a deeply co-dependent, quasi-dysfunctional Odd Couple, solving mysteries and kicking butts.
Contemporary elements are incorporated into the script, according to director Amanda Dawson, an assistant professor of theatre at USU.
“For example,” she says, “Joan Watson’s backstory is set during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Other modern updates include discussions of tweeting, TikTok and Google, although Sherlock Holmes has no use for the search engine.
“If you have the right team, the right deductive reasoning – which is what Sherlock Homes calls her own way of thinking – and critical thinking skills,” Dawson explains, “any problem can be solved.”
The small cast comedy stars some of USU’s most veteran performers.
The always watchable Marin Robison has been cast as Sherlock Holmes. Ms. Robinson was last seen hilariously in the university’s production of The Tempest and in leading roles in the Lyric Repertory Company’s productions this past summer.
Her partner in crime-solving as Watson will be Mia Gatherum, who is another veteran of numerous USU and Lyric Repertory productions.
Seniors Ryan Adams and Ariana Whatcott will also be along for the ride in multiple roles, as will Megan Kimberly Bedell as a television reporter.
The play’s production staff will include Brighton McDonald as stage manager; Stephanie White as intimacy coordinator; Paul Mitri as fight coordinator; Michael Shipley as dialect coach; Sydnee Burton as costume designer; Joshua Legate as lighting designer; and Kelsey Koga as sound designer.
Evening performances of Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson are slated for Oct. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Lyric Theatre.
Matinee performances will be staged on Oct. 5 and 12 at 1 p.m.
The Caine Lyric Theatre is located at 30 West Center Street in downtown Logan.