Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – until 12 June 2021
Reviewed by Liberty Noke
5*****
This reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved novel is unlike any other. Had you asked me yesterday if 2 actors and a cushion could play all the roles required to tell this story I would have thought you mad but this rather mad play was a showstopper. The play was written during lockdown to abide by all covid restrictions so lights were on timers, no crew was required and there was no interval. Sara Crowe and Stefan Bednarczyk played a married couple who had written the play in lockdown and were performing alone. They used hats, props and costumes to show when they were changing characters and occasionally placed a prop on a cushion to play a third part. The stage featured a piano and various props for making sound effects stage right and otherwise resembled a dressing room with racks of costumes along the back as well as a screen.
The entire show was hilarious, the audience never stopped laughing. Siobhan Basset, played by Sara Crowe, was very much running the show and her husband Michael, played by Stefan Bednarczyk, seemed eager to please her. He had collection of props to provide sound effects to the show but often broke or lost them so made the wrong sound often to the amusement of the audience. The couple had great chemistry and occasionally broke character to check in with each other adding to the comedy. Such a play with only 2 actors playing many parts could be easily confusing but the performers were so talented giving each character distinct mannerisms to tell them apart and they both pulled off convincing Yorkshire and American accents to help with this.
A major part of the comedy was a laptop used to display slides to aid the story telling. Siobhan used it upside down and the slides shown were drawings on paper with cartoon dogs or supermarket logos on the side to show that they play had been written in lockdown. This, along with the way the two actors would prompt each other and occasionally stop to fix their costume or have a gin and tonic made the play seem new and under-rehearsed but this was all part of the hilarity and made the play the massive success that it was. Overall a hilarious show that had the audience laughing from start to finish and many of them on their feet at the end. I would very much recommend it