Oscar Wilde aids Holmes in Chamber Theatre romp
The only thing wittier than a Sherlock Holmes story is a Sherlock Holmes story with Oscar Wilde in it.
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily,” directed by Marcella Kearns and now running at the Broadway Theatre Center, pairs the legendary consulting detective with the waggish Irish playwright in an entertaining production.
Playwright Katie Forgette, an actress herself, draws words and elements from multiple Holmes stories, Wilde’s works and Shakespeare, too.
In a plot that begins reminiscent of “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Holmes is engaged by Wilde to find intimate love letters written by actress Lillie Langtry (a real star of the era) to Bertie, a.k.a. the rakish Prince of Wales. “Jersey Lily” presents many twists of varying probabilities, aided by so many characters who are masters of disguise and misdirection: Holmes, his nemesis Moriarty, a female forger posing as a servant, and Langtry.
As Wilde, every time Rick Pendzich opens his mouth to speak, everyone on stage and in the audience stops to listen. With good reason: Playwright Forgette has plucked some of Wilde’s choicest epigrams for him. Pendzich delivers them with exactly the right amount of playful self-satisfaction.
Brian J. Gill makes a fine Holmes, thoughtful rather than cold, and more warm-blooded than he cares to admit. Matt Daniels’ towering presence and vocal control make him a Moriarty who intimidates lesser beings, but one who respects Holmes as a worthy opponent.
Langtry is neither a stereotypical victim nor a 21st-century woman of action anachronistically dropped into the past. Kay Allmand plays her as a shrewdly intelligent person who understands how to use every tool in her kit.
As a fan of the canonical Holmes stories, my one reservation about this comedy-mystery is about the reduced role for Dr. Watson (Ryan Schabach), who in “Jersey Lily” is as much Niles Crane as he is the dogged veteran of war in Afghanistan that Arthur Conan Doyle created.
Forgette has loaded this play with Easter eggs for Holmes fans, Wilde lovers and appreciators of Victoriana. But an English major is not a prerequisite for enjoying this romp.