MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES by Michael Mitnick was inspired by The New Yorker article “Mysterious Circumstances, the Strange Death of a Sherlock Holmes Fanatic” by David Grann. The play, based on true events that occurred in 1894 and 2004, will delight Sherlock Holmes fans thanks to the skill of the seven actors who play all the roles in both time periods, with Matt Shakman’s direction totally encompassing Brett J. Bankis’ brilliant set design, which changes almost as often at the characters do!
The technical wonders of the show, however, do lend quite a bit of confusion to the production, making it difficult to follow the story. With many heavy accents making the dialogue very difficult to understand at times, I found it easy to get lost in which characters were on the stage during quick scene changes, impeding my comprehension of the tale. But I am sure fans of Sherlock Holmes and mysteries, in general, will flock to the production and rave about it.
The play begins as Richard Lancelyn Green, the world’s foremost scholar on Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is found dead in his London apartment. With multiple suspects and competing motives, Green’s death raises questions that may be answered only by Holmes himself who is called upon to try and solve the murder. The cast features Alan Tudyk as Richard Lancelyn Green and Sherlock Holmes, with six other actors portraying all the others who come and go across time and place, with Hugo Armstrong as The American, John Bobek as Chester, Austin Durant as Conan Doyle, Leo Marks as Smith, Ramiz Monsef as Watson, Helen Sadler as Touie as their major character roles.
Thanks to costume designer E.B. Brooks, the many quick costume changes, each more comical than the last, add in even more mystery as actors disappear to turn up as someone totally different in every way possible. This is especially true near the end of the play as every character is seen during the past two hours emerge from behind the major bookcase at the center of the stage and re-emerge on the other side in less than a minute, transformed completely into someone else. I wish there was a video to share about the costume/character changes going on behind the scenes as that would make an excellent comedy in its own right.
“Mysterious Circumstances” was commissioned as part of the Geffen Playhouse’s New Play Development Program, thanks to the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund. Its World Premiere production continues in the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, nightly except Mondays with additional weekend matinees, through Sunday, July 14. Tickets priced at $30 – $120 are available in person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, by phone at 310.208.5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org with rush tickets for each day’s performance made available to the general public 30 minutes before showtime at the box office, priced $35 General / $10, Student.
