BETC production of ‘Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt 2B’ is a thrilling, funny and dark comedy
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be spinning in his grave, but the rest of us are laughing our asses off with the female versions of Sherlock Homes and Dr. Watson in Kate Hamill’s comedy Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B. Now running at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center in a Butterfly Effect Theatre production, the play is a mashup of Sherlock Holmes themes and plotlines but set in present-day London.
Ms. Holmes is played by Anastasia Davidson with such over-the-top glee and verve and elan and joie de vivre that I believe if I ever feel sad, picturing her cavorting about the stage like a crazed ballerina will make me smile again. Watching her in the first act operating at volume 11, I wondered if A – she could keep it up and B – not let the performance become annoying. She succeeds on both levels so well that she might’ve sucked up all the oxygen in the room. But with firm direction by Stephen Weitz and three other strong actors, that doesn’t happen.
The Watson character is an American played by Rebecca Remaly. We later find out she’s a former physician who lost it during the pandemic and is just trying to find herself. Looking for a flat in London, she ends up at Holmes’ Apt. 2B but quickly determines that her potential roommate is nuts and tries to leave.
Holmes, however, has a sort of psychological vortex around her that’s irresistible. You may think her latest pronouncement is bonkers, but you’ll stick around because there’s something intriguing about it. And so Watson is suckered in without too much resistance and soon finds herself reluctantly acting as the sidekick/assistant as Holmes works to tease Watson’s story out of her while solving other mysteries.
The dynamic between the two women is quite clever, with Holmes bouncing off the walls in steampunk goggles while the world-weary Watson is initially dead weight. Having lost everything due to the pandemic-related mental breakdown, it’s not clear what she’s hoping to find in London but it’s most certainly not to become a sidekick to a manic detective. Remaly does a great job with the transition from highly reluctant accomplice to full-fledged partner, while Davidson’s character never lets Watson escape her madcap ecosystem. She may look down intellectually at all other humans, but Holmes is at heart a lonely wreck who craves both companionship as well as constant validation of her skills.
(L-R) Anastasia Davidson, Michael Morgan and Rebecca Remaly in ‘Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B | Photo: Michael Ensminger
All of the other characters are played by Erika Mori and Michael Morgan. I first saw Mori in BETC’s production of The Wolves in 2018 and was deeply impressed by her standout performance. Last year she appeared alongside Davidson in another BETC production, Fourteen Funerals, which was directed by Remaly. In their current collaboration, it’s evident the three women are in sync with every scene, and while Remaly and Davidson are busy portraying individual characters, Mori is having a field day as a landlord, a corpse, another character named Mrs. Drebber and, primarily, the dragon-lady quasi-villain Irene Adler. Mori is delightful in the role and costumed magnificently by Erika Daun. At one point she appears in a getup that’s a cross between a harlequin and a dominatrix (she even has a little whip), and she and Holmes start generating a lot of erotic energy between them. As in the source material, Holmes is largely asexual, but here Hamill’s script explores how the cold, calculating detective can be pushed off course by the intensely sexual Adler.
Erika Mori as Irene Adler | Photo: Michael Ensminger
It’s a lot of fun to watch, and I found myself losing track of the many plot threads and simply enjoying the performances. Alongside a powerhouse trio of women, Morgan holds his own as Sherlock Holmes’ arch nemesis Moriarty, but he also takes turns as a narrator, a cop and a shady U.S. politician.
With all that energy on stage, Weitz keeps it all just within bounds and manages the many high-speed comings and goings with a nifty set designed by Tina Anderson. Doors, walls, furniture and even bathtubs fly in and out as scenes changes, and the actors are involved in the transitions as well as a pair of stagehands. (In a nice touch, one of them appears onstage to provide realistic noises when slaps are required.)
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson is a cheeky romp with a lot of laughs that also touches on some current themes we can all relate to post-pandemic: loneliness, a search for purpose, co-dependency among others — as well as female power, sexual identity and personal re-invention. It’s also the swan-song production for Weitz and Remaly, thee husband-wife pair who founded BETC and who announced last fall they’d be leaving the company.
It’s a fitting good-bye for the theatrical couple: a laugh-filled comedy with some darker edges that’s packing the Dairy’s Grace Gamm Theatre so well that new performances have been added. The show runs through Feb. 25 and comes highly recommended.
Rebecca Remaly and Anastasia Davidson as Watson and Holmes | Photo: Michael Ensminger
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