This show includes audience participation. Please allow children who want to participate to sit in the front row.
“Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.”
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was born in 1859 in Scotland and was ahead of his time for both fiction and real-life police work. Many fictional characters and investigative methods were spawned from his stories. Characters like Batman, Mr. Spock and Dr. House are all direct descendants of the grumpy, super-observant tenant of 221B Baker Street that Doyle created in 1886. The character of Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed in movies more than any other character. In addition to the original 60 stories written by Doyle, there are an estimated 25,000 stories, movies, tv shows, comics, children’s books, radio plays, etc. based on Sherlock Holmes.
Doyle was an avid learner and was fascinated with the scientific method his whole life. He studied botany, went to medical school and was always researching emerging methods of detection from around the world then popularizing them in his stories. Doyle was very early in exposing the world to fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, the uniqueness of typewriters (used to find out the source of typed letters), footprint analysis and even the study of canine behavior when dogs witness crimes.
In Miller Murray Susen’s adaptation, Holmes bristles whenever his/her skills are underestimated. The cast also hopes that you will not underestimate the ability of primary school students to explain the investigative methods of the world’s greatest detective. Every member of this cast has a story of an adult who tried to trick them in some small or large way. They may or may not have told the adult, but they weren’t fooled. Detection is done with the senses and with knowledge of human behavior, both of which children possess. Whether it’s 1919 or 2019, criminals think they can get away with crimes, and adults think they can get away with putting one over on kids. But kids see. They observe. They deduce.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP WITH SHERLOCK(S)!
Laura Ege, Crystal Buyaki, Miller Murray Susen,
Pernmoot Photography (Martyn Kyle), canonPVA (Jacob Canon)
Daphne Latham, Four County Players, Jen Kashatus
Julie Floyd, Dominic Quinn, Erin Quinn, Adele Kofler
Jenn Fontenot, Kristen Lyons, UVA Drama Department
The American Shakespeare Center
The families of the cast and crew
Any omission is wholly unintentional
