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Since Arthur Conan Doyle was a spiritualist who believed in life after death, it’s possible that this garbled take on his famous detective is designed to drag the author, shrieking, from the grave. Joel Horwood’s script, loosely based on his story The Sign of Four, is an uneasy mix of postmodernism and panto, almost every line delivered with clownish, tongue-in-cheek irony. I’d assume it was aimed at younger theatregoers if it weren’t for the f-words and drug use.
Sean Holmes’s production stars Joshua James as a young, blond and stroppy version of Sherlock. Clad in sky-blue trousers and waistcoat he’s fond of chemical stimulants and prizefighting, like Robert Downey Jr’s manifestation in Guy Ritchie’s films.
