Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Carol Mystery

NODA Review

What better way to kick off the festive season than a visit to Alvechurch for their annual Christmas production! Not a panto this year but a murder mystery loosely based on that great detective Sherlock Holmes with a bit of Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie thrown in! Written by members Paul Chamberlain and Chris Davies this had all the elements for a thoroughly enjoyable evening’s entertainment!

The plot starts in the present day where we meet Vera James and Gareth Jones who have stumbled across an old diary belonging to Dr Watson which tells the tale of the Christmas Carol Mystery, and we were then transported back to old London Town to solve the murder!

Along the way we met a multitude of characters, including some with rather similar names to the popular board game Cluedo! It is impossible to single out any one performance as all the cast played equally important roles in this detective mash up but congratulations to Chris Davies for not only being co-writer but also putting on a convincing performance as Sherlock Holmes and to Leah Yendell as probably the first female Dr Watson! After a lot of detective work by Holmes, Watson, Agatha Frisky and Poirot and a bit of wrongful arrest, the perpetrator was finally brought to justice with a twist that kept us guessing right to the end!

The set was simple with a convincing London skyline and a living room that changed from being that of Sherlock Holmes to the one owned by the Cratchits. Costumes were also good with just a hint of the real names of some of the characters with splashes of the appropriate colour!

Well done to all involved in the first production since lockdown for Alvechurch Dramatic Society and it was a joy to see so many in the audience which proves how essential live theatre is!

I very much look forward to seeing all at Alvechurch in the near future.

Andy Brown

Regional Councillor