Review:Partners in Crime/Philip Weller
This review of the play "Partners in Crime", by F. G. Gallan was written by Philip Weller and published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 1, No. 3) in september 1990.
Review
- Partners in Crime
- A Play by F. G. Gallan
Reviewed by Philip Weller
This play appeared at The New End Theatre, Hampstead from 24 July to 19 August 1990.
This production is admirably economical, not only in its condensed script and small, but very effective, stage setting, but also in the way that the six actors create seven characters. Glyn Grain manages to portray Sherlock Holmes' colleague Dr. Watson and Raffles' associate Bunny, both alternately and, occasionally, simultaneously to some good dramatic and humorous effect. In addition, the name of the play's author conceals a pseudonymous collaboration between Elissa Swinglehurst and Caroline Tjoa, in the tradition of Ellery Queen.
The play revolves around a confrontation between the spirits of the deceased Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung, over the relative moral characters of their most famous literary creations: Sherlock Holmes and Raffles. This confrontation centres on the different ways in which each of these creations reacts to the impositions of the law, with Holmes' propensity to indulge in a little burglary in pursuit of suspected criminals, and Raffles' activities as a likeable, but undeniably criminal, rogue. These initial considerations progress to questions of a higher ethical nature as the plot unravels. The two spirit authors are able, to some extent, to influence the physical environments of their creations, but they increasingly discover that they are unable to totally control the development of characters who have seemingly acquired elements of independent identity.
The level of development of the characters within the play varies considerably. Mycroft Holmes, played by Michael Rhenish, is allowed almost no scope because of the constraints placed upon his limited existence within the play by the spirit authors: he appears merely to set the scenario within which the others must develop. Conan Doyle, played by Norman Mitchell, proceeds in a genial, bumbling manner for most of the time, although he is allowed to reveal some of his more passionate concerns with life in the later stages of the play. Hornung, played exuberantly by Derek Bell, contrasts sharply with Conan Doyle in his more modern, street-wise attitudes to life, although he thereby appears as a less complex personality. and as one deserving less sympathy. Perhaps the most shallow character in the play is that of the self-satisfied Raffles, portrayed by John Duval, in a possibly more correct rendition of the original Hornung creation. Sherlock Holmes, played superbly by Brian Abbott, reveals something more of that much-studied literary invention, although with some emotional outbursts which suggest a character trait which is markedly restrained in the original. Perhaps the most interesting character development in the play is that shown by the Watson/Bunny composite, although the emphasis is definitely on the former element. This character ascends from being a near-graduate of the Nigel Bruce school of buffoonery, to a point where he is called upon to make a literally fatal judgement between the two main fictional heroes. His decision is a most interesting one, as is the subsequent reaction of the two spirit authors.
This play does not constrain itself within the limits of the Holmes/Raffles canons, although it does, rather thankfully, generally respect those works. In extending the ranges of the fictional characters within the interests of the real life characters, the play manages to ask questions which are relevant to literature, politics and society today, and it manages to be both stimulating and entertaining in doing this.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
