Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act
It is a drawing room elegantly furnished but uncluttered, a single cushioned chair on the red patterned hearth rug, a hatstand with a deerstalker and a bowler hat, a table upon which lie a pipe, a glass and some papers, letters perhaps, all of them clues as to the location and the identity of the occupant, Mister Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, his lodgings since the year 1881 at 221B Baker Street overseen by the remarkably tolerant Mrs Martha Hudson.
That was thirty-five years ago, three and a half decades shaped by a singular coincidence which Holmes himself would likely deny the validity of, that two strangers should both enquire on the same day of the same London broker as to the availability of “comfortable rooms at a comfortable price,” that other party being Doctor John Watson, Holmes’ friend, companion, confidante and chronicler, though the former sometimes felt the latter took liberties with the titles under which they were published, The Sussex Vampire being particularly irksome.
Written by David Stuart Davies, an authority on the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation and directed by Gareth Armstrong, Nigel Miles-Thomas is not only the great detective but a brace of other characters as well in The Last Act, a reflection on the past and present as he returns to those rooms and wanders the corridors of his memory palace, recalling colleagues and clients, villains and victims, the confessions of an unclouded mind with a clear conscience, apologies made for the times he may have hurt those around him, particularly Watson, yet defending his actions as always undertaken for valid reasons.
Miles-Thomas tall, dignified and absolutely focused on the facts of each of the cases he discusses, reliving encounters, a somewhat mellowed Holmes is the default he comfortably snaps back into after each digression with the simple precision of closing a door, the intellect and observational skill of the chameleon-like character lending itself to this kind of performance, a single man on stage yet with a life so eventful the stage never feels empty, every corner filled with memories kept sharp by the occasional regrets.
Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act continues at the Assembly Rooms until Sunday 25th August
