Tom Williams

Watson takes us back to the time when Holmes is so engrossed with bring down arch criminal Professor Moriarty (Nathan Thompson) that he is willing to rick death to accomplished just that. Watson’s help is needed and accepted. However, just as that adventure is about to embark, a strange visitor to the Baker Street house arrives with a challenge.

Maybe it was the locust in the trees or the swirling summer wind or, most likely, the positioning of the foot microphones that made it difficult to hear many of the players, especially the women. Add the fact that many of the women spoke too fast, running their words together and you find it difficult understand The Bard’s text, much less get the inherent humor.

When you have Kevin Anderson, Francis Guinan and young Bubba Weiler in your cast you have the makings of a fine show. Their acting and the smart flowing direction by Sandy Shinner save the evening. Joel Drake Johnson’s strange play, A Guide For the Perplexed, sure is a puzzlement since it leaves more unanswered questions than it resolves

When the best thing about a play is the set (designed by Kathy Arfken), you know the work is in trouble! I can’t understand why they chose anything by Canadian playwright George F. Walker to mount? He may be the worst playwright to find his plays on stage that I’ve ever encountered.