Who would have thought that two of our most beloved franchises would work together so well? In Mark Shanahan’s 2021 A Sherlock Carol, Arthur Conan Doyle’s sleuths find themselves thrust into the familiar narrative of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with hauntings and mysterious circumstances that blend the characters and lore of each story together in humorous and unexpected ways. Director Windie Wilson brings festive holiday cheer to the Knoxville stage as we experience the twists and turns of a Christmas mystery that lead the unspirited Sherlock Holmes to reflect on mysteries past, present, and future. For Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s holiday offering, the game’s afoot!
To begin with, Holmes’s longtime rival, Moriarty, is dead, and this has put Holmes into a bit of a bah-humbug funk; he’s giving the potential for more detective work and the spirit of the holiday season the Scrooge treatment. David Snow is an impressive Sherlock: domineering and coldly calculating in the beginning, Snow’s Holmes is a real grump in the first half of play. But upon his encounter with the ghost of a reformed, post-A Christmas Carol Ebeneezer Scrooge, Holmes finds his sleuthing spirit again. Tim Reynolds’s Scrooge is otherworldly, as if he stepped right out of a picture book and onto the stage. He’s a much more friendly ghost than those who visited him in his past, and Snow’s and Reynolds’s scenes together are riveting.
The remainder of the 7-person cast portrays multiple characters, a daunting task for the actors, stage manager Sara Rowe, and costumer Corey de Rohan, so props to the team for managing the chaos. We first meet the cast as anonymous characters caroling in the opening scene. Holmes then encounters the grown-up Tiny Tim as Dr. Cratchit, played by Nicolas McClanahan. Dr. Cratchit is McClanahan’s primary role, and he is suave, sophisticated, and amused by Holmes’s deductive abilities. He approaches Holmes with the case of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s mysterious, Christmas Eve death, the circumstances of which indicate a potential murder. Arriving at Scrooge’s home, Holmes meets Scrooge’s housekeeper Mrs. Dilber, played by Raine Palmer. Palmer is a riot, balancing a variety of English and Irish accents across her characters (including an innkeep, a hotel proprietor, and Dr. Cratchit’s observant sister), and her physical acting is hilarious. She’s the gem of this production, shining brighter than even the Blue Carbuncle that Holmes and company are desperately hunting down.
Casey Cain is also quite dexterous, juggling Holmes’s companion and friend Dr. Watson, Scotland Yard’s hard nosed and arrogant Inspector Lestrade, and a handful of other small characters. Cain feels like a different person each time he’s on stage, which is a testament to his acting ability to embody so many different characters. The contrast is most evident between two minor characters: a sleazy merchant peddling potentially stolen goods and a humble candlemaker who clearly cares for his customers. Rebecca Gomez primarily portrays the Countess of Morcar, an old flame of Sherlock’s, and Gomez is elegant and regal in this role; she also does a large portion of the on stage narration and is a great caroller, to boot. Courtney Woolard is charming as the young Emma Wiggins and the betrothed Fannie Gardner, both of whom are thrust into the Christmas mystery by members of their family. Emma Wiggins is the Tiny Tim of the Sherlock world, and Woolard is playfully mischievous in this role.
If you’re looking for something a bit different from the traditional holiday theatre fare, A Sherlock Carol is a fun twist on the regular offerings this time of year. It runs until December 14 with showtimes on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm and matinees on Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are available at the TKD box office at 800 South Central St. or online at https://theatreknoxville.com/a-sherlock-carol/.
