Sorry For The Silence From Me. Ive Been Finding Balancing Full-time Work And Rehearsing For Sherlock

Sorry for the silence from me. I’ve been finding balancing full-time work and rehearsing for Sherlock Holmes more exhausting than I expected!

I’ve been having a great time though. As a Sherlockian, being a part of this, even a small part, is such a treat. They say you should never meet your heroes, but they don’t say anything about pretending to beat them up on stage…

It’s also been a real eye-opener for me. I think, if I’m being honest, I’d always thought of Gillette!Holmes as a bit of an oddity, interesting as a museum piece perhaps (I’ve not had a chance to watch the film version yet and am now deliberately waiting until after the show) but a bit one-dimensional and far too melodramatic for its own good. Reader, I could not have been more wrong. Gillette’s Holmes is not just smart - he’s witty, brave and big-hearted. He feels far too much, in fact, and the weight of his actions hangs heavy on him. Again and again in the play he is confronted by the consequences of what he has done, and again and again Gillette shows us the real, flawed man beneath the deerstalker (or top hat, in our version!). Although I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for that romance subplot, Gillette really, really got Holmes, and his affection for the character shines through.

His stagecraft is also incredible, by the way - his stage directions are almost cinematic in their vision. I only hope we can do them some justice…

(On a personal note, it’s also been challenging to get back on stage after a 6 year gap, especially playing a character about as far away from me as it’s possible to get - Craigin is a really nasty piece of work, a thug and a bully who likes hurting people just for the fun of it. It turns out it’s quite hard to be menacing when you’re a good foot shorter than everyone else on stage, so finding the right physicality has been, er, interesting. I’m not sure it’s quite right yet, but it’s getting there. There’s also the added challenge of the fight scenes - I’ve done some very, very basic fight training previously, but I’ve never been called on to actually use any of it before. So as well as trying to be scary, I also have to make sure I don’t actually punch anyone in the face. Harder than it sounds!)

We’re on the home stretch now. Time to pull out all the stops and do Mr Gillette proud.

(Last I heard, tickets were selling well but some were still available - if you’re in and/or around London this December, it would be great to see you. And if you’re not around, you can still go to that link and laugh at my mugshot - er, I mean, headshot...)

Not Sherlock Holmes related, but ... here is the label I doodled for the beer that the Chap brewed.

The beer is very tasty, though somewhat liable to explode in the middle of the night.

700 followers!

No, really, don't laugh...

*arrives 2 months late referencing a really old meme*

Hello! Not dead, just busy...

I have at last finished the next installment of the Adventures of Mrs Hudson! It’ll be arriving this Tuesday, because I like to pretend that there really is an updating schedule... 

Hey, sorry to bother you, but I can't seem to find that little comic you did with just Holmes standing alone in the rain and Watson helping him out. It was really sweet- do you know where I can find it? THANK YOU!!!

No bother at all, dear Nonny - I think this is the one you are looking for? And thank YOU :)

The ghost’s afoot!

A particularly ghoulish installment of the Adventures of Mrs Hudson arrives tomorrow!