Photo credit: Len Villano
Door County plays host to a legendary sleuth in female format as the Peninsula Players present Miss Holmes (From left: Dan Klarer, Sean Fortunato, Cassandra Bissell, Karl Hamilton, Maggie Kettering and Neil Brookshire)
Door County’s Peninsula Players render a surprisingly fresh perspective on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic sleuth this summer with a production of the 2016 suspense drama Miss Holmes. Powerfully charismatic Cassandra Bissell cleverly wields wit and selfless heroism in the role of Sherlock Holmes. When we first encounter her, she has a black eye. She’s in a straitjacket. Relentlessly investigating criminal activity has landed her in and out of mental institutions. Holmes soon makes the acquaintance of a Dr. Dorothy Watson, who quickly becomes swept up in a mystery involving possible corruption within Scotland Yard.
Playwright Christopher M. Walsh allows Watson firmly equal footing with Holmes as the two dive into a fast-paced mystery of conspiracy. As Watson, aesthetically magnetic Maggie Kettering feels a bit like a 19th-century James Bond with a black medical bag. Kettering’s deft precision as a firmly grounded action heroine pairs well with Bissell’s recklessly analytical super-sleuth. One of the cleverer scenes in the adventure has Watson administering a rather radical course of therapy with a handgun.
Walsh has rendered a believable 19th-century London in which the two heroines put themselves directly in the path of danger in a world ruled over by men who tend to take offense to women in the roles of doctor and investigator. With Holmes and Watson as women, the heroism feels that much more potent in Walsh’s adventure than it did in Conan Doyle’s original stories. With such an engrossing initial adventure, Walsh seems to be setting up for possible sequels. Bissell and Kettering make a possible sequel feel very attractive.
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Through July 22 at 4351 Peninsula Players Road, Fish Creek. For tickets, visit peninsulaplayers.com or call 920-868-3287.
