"Rare Fits of Laughter" [STUD]

by Scott Monty March 26, 2011

Photo credit: David Jensen

[Editor's note: This is Gordon's first post for us. He'll be covering the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the entertainment industry. You can also find him at Blog THIS, Pal!]

Finding examples of Sherlockian parody and humor is relatively simple. So is finding a theatrical version of the Great Detective. But the combination of the two - a direct parody of the canon done for the stage? Sometimes, that can be a little bit trickier to find.

However, there is hope - currently running in Croydon is a production of Ha Ha Holmes - The Beast of the Blistervilles, a very loose adaptation of one of the key novels in the canon. (Of course, Hound is no stranger to parody, having been made into a comedy by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in the late 1970s, or even 1988's Without A Clue, my personal favorite of the Holmes comedies). This looks to be a great theatrical experience, especially for those Sherlockians who may be making a pilgrimage to the United Kingdom in the near future.

Of course, as Watson suggests in "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.". Perhaps this production is one way to rectify that situation.

Even if there are plenty of jokes in between.


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