Review: Sherlock Holmes, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
A high-energy, vaudeville-inflected adaptation stitches together Conan Doyle’s stories into a spectacle that dazzles as often as it overwhelms.
The game is afoot – along with a hot-air balloon, a troupe of dancers, several imperial subplots and, at one point, what feels suspiciously like a Christmas pantomime that has wandered into May. At the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Sherlock Holmes has been reimagined as a high-speed, vaudevillian spectacle – loud, restless, intermittently dazzling, and only loosely concerned with whether the audience can keep up.
Written by Joel Horwood, the script raids the canon – A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, with a dash of The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans – stitching together colonial intrigue, stolen state secrets and cursed treasure. It is fertile ground, at least on paper. In execution, however, the production seems more intent on assembling the mosaic than animating it. Characters declaim rather than evolve; promising ideas flare up briefly, then vanish in the rush toward the next spectacle.
We begin, briskly and somewhat bewilderingly, with a burst of 21st-century choreography before plunging into colonial India, where betrayal over a cache of jewels sets off a chain reaction of violence and revenge. By the time the action reaches London – via opium dens, bridges, ships and a generous helping of coincidence – bodies are piling up and logic begins to fray. Even for a committed Holmes enthusiast, following the chain of cause and effect can feel like attempting a deduction with half the evidence misplaced.
The production’s greatest ally is its setting: a stage tucked into Regent’s Park, a short stroll from Holmes’s fictional base at 221B Baker Street. The script makes playful use of this proximity – zoo animals escape, London briefly feels like a stage for Holmes’s world – and for a moment the evening achieves a light, self-aware charm. At some point, actors begin appearing in animal heads, a choice that feels either like an over-eager attempt to fuse styles or a glimpse into Holmes’s drug-addled delirium. The sound design leans into the idea with sly effectiveness, piping in animal calls as the audience settles after the interval, as though something untamed might be stirring just beyond the park’s edge.
Nature, however, proves an unpredictable collaborator. On press day, thunderstorms, hail, sunshine and sharp wind chased one another in quick succession, mirroring the production’s own volatility. The cast pressed on with impressive stamina, projecting and dashing across the stage with relentless energy. Whether this heightened intensity was a deliberate stylistic choice or a practical response to near-freezing conditions remained, like several plot points, intriguingly unresolved.
Director Grace Smart leans unapologetically into spectacle. Fight sequences, exotic dance, fire effects and a revolving stage keep the action in near-constant motion, sweeping us from London streets to opium dens to riverbanks with cinematic speed. It is frequently exhilarating. It is also, at times, exhausting. The pacing feels tuned to an audience fluent in short-form digital storytelling – always another image, another beat, another distraction – leaving little room for tension, atmosphere or thought to accumulate.
As Holmes, Joshua James cuts an unusual figure – less tortured genius than flamboyant, slightly petulant showman, dressed in a baby-blue suit and behaving like a sybaritic enfant terrible. There are hints of neurodivergence and queerness, but they remain just that: hints, never fully explored. His drug use is,however, not merely implied but staged with blunt clarity – Watson administers an injection on stage, a moment that is both jarring and oddly effective, giving the performance a literal and metaphorical jolt. Jyuddah Jaymes’s Watson provides a necessary counterweight, measured and observant, occasionally stepping in to bridge narrative gaps. Their partnership has an appealing rhythm when the production allows it space to breathe.
The arrival of Mary, played by Nadi Kemp-Sayfi, supplies the central motive force, though she remains more function than fully realised presence. As elsewhere, one senses the outline of richer character work that never quite materialises.
Horwood gestures toward themes of empire, nationalism and migration, but these threads remain largely decorative. The play reaches toward contemporary resonance without quite anchoring its ideas, skimming across them as it hurries onward.
For all its excess and unevenness, there is something undeniably infectious about this Sherlock Holmes. It is inventive, exuberant and packed with theatrical ingenuity, even when it threatens to collapse under its own ambition. On a warm, dry evening, it would likely feel like a gleeful outdoor romp.
As it is, this is less a mystery to be solved than a spectacle to be ridden out – chaotic, overstuffed, occasionally baffling, but not without moments of genuine delight.
Sherlock Holmes runs at Regents Park Open Air Theatre until 6 June.
Tickets from £15
Plus £2.50 booking fee per transaction
Bookings: https://openairtheatre.com/production/sherlock-holmes
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
