Playwright: adapted by Steve Pickering, Charlie Athanas, Kevin Theis et al.
At: Shanghai Low Theatricals at Apple Tree Theatre, 595 Elm Place in Highland Park
Phone: (847) 432-4335; $27-$38
Runs through: July 20
Talk about artistic daring! In an age when most plays strive to be more like movies, the firm of Shanghai Low Theatricals—Steve
Pickering, Charlie Athanas and Kevin Theis—offer playgoers a return to the cogitative pleasures of the literary whodunit, featuring the
kind of genius supersleuth existing today only in Vincent D'Onofrio's Bobby Goren on television's Law And Order: Criminal Intent. But
if this adventure of Sherlock Holmes (the supersleuth who founded the genre) is like reading a book, its lengthy exposition
acquainting us with the secret pacts, vows of vengeance and search for lost treasure that propels the intrigue—well, once 'the game
is afoot,' we can't turn the pages fast enough.
Deciding how to play this material is also a challenging proposition—the actors must take their roles seriously, but not TOO
seriously, or audiences will giggle for sheer relief. But the cast assembled by Steve Pickering for this world-premiere production,
while their enjoyment at working with one another is palpable, never succumb to self-contained insularity, but make coherence and
dignity their goal throughout—even in the humorous moments when Holmes and Watson bicker over the former's image as rendered
public by the latter, or both quail like schoolboys before the wrath of their housekeeper.
Michael Grant emerges as an aloof, but not bloodless, Holmes (uttering things like 'My mind rebels at stagnation. I crave mental
exaltation!' with aplomb, but seeming not to mind when his sidekicks assist in the detection), flanked by Joe Forbrich, cast against
type as the courtly Dr. Watson, and Kate Martin as the courageous Miss Mary Morstan. The eight remaining ensemble members
constitute a multiethnic dream team (featuring, among others, Linda Kimbrough, Larry Neumann, Jr., Parvesh Cheena, Anish
Jethmalani, Deaf Bailiwick Artists' Ronald Jui and the protean Bill McGough) create a score of vividly etched personalities, thanks to
Jill Walmsley Zager's dialect instruction. And Jacqueline and Richard Penrod's scenic design on Apple Tree's tupenny-sized stage
suggests five-story London mansions and fog-bound shipyards with the simplest of devices.
The Sign Of The Four is escapist fare at its coziest. Why not curl up with a good play this evening?