Theatre Palisades presents the first Los Angeles production of “The Game’s Afoot or Holmes For The Holidays” by Ken Ludwig, opening Friday, Nov. 6 and running until Sunday, Dec. 13 at the Pierson Playhouse, located at 941 Temescal Canyon Road in Pacific Palisades.
Directed by Gene Franklin Smith, “The Game’s Afoot” is the winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s 2012 Edgar Award for Best Play. Nona Hale and Pat Perkins produce for Theatre Palisades by permission from Samuel French. Featured in the cast (in alphabetical order) are Gail Bernardi, Matthew Godfrey, Nicole Knudsen, James Lujan, John Mawson, Maria Pavone, Maggie Peach and Andi Wagner.
Playwright Ken Ludwig is best known for his farces, and he infuses his riotous wit and slapstick comedy into this clever whodunit. It’s Christmas Eve, 1936, and William Gillette – the first actor to portray the iconic Sherlock Holmes on stage and in silent film – recovers from a gunshot wound inflicted during a performance.
Donning his Sherlock alter-ego, Gillette attempts to learn the identity of his would-be assassin and invites his cast and a verbally abusive theatre critic to his home for the holidays. But during the festivities, the theatre critic is murdered, and the murderer must be found out before he or she strikes again.
Director Gene Franklin Smith shares, “William Gillette is all but forgotten except by Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle enthusiasts. A handsome and dynamic stage actor, Gillette convinced Conan Doyle that he could adapt the Sherlock Holmes stories into a play, which proved to be a phenomenon that ran for 30 years.
In fact, Gillette transformed Conan Doyle’s Sherlock into the Sherlock we love today: the curved pipe, the deerstalker cap, the fancy dressing gown, and Sherlock’s famous utterance “Elementary” all came from Gillette’s imagination.
Thus Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch owe much indeed to William Gillette for originally creating the iconic sleuth’s persona.”
Ken Ludwig sets “The Game’s Afoot” in Gillette’s Connecticut castle (which you can still visit) and although historically Gillette would have been too old to leap and swash-buckle as Gillette does in this play, Ludwig has captured Gillette’s bravado and love for the theater and actors, who prove to be far more lethal than Sherlock’s super-villain Professor Moriarty. Can you figure out whodunit before Gillette does?
“The Game’s Afoot or Holmes For The Holidays” performances are from Friday, Nov. 6 to Sunday, Dec. 13, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at Theatre Palisades’ Pierson Playhouse, located at 941 Temescal Canyon Road (south of Sunset Blvd.) in Pacific Palisades. Ticket prices: Adults $20, seniors and students $18.
For more information or to order tickets, call the box office at 310-454-1970 or visit our website at www.theatrepalisades.org. You may also order tickets on Plays 411 by calling 323-960-7822 or online at www.plays411.com/holmes. Free onsite parking is available at the Pierson Playhouse.
