THEATER REVIEWS : Long Beach Cracks Tough ‘Case’ With Critical Success

Some playwrights could be terrific critics. We certainly know that in Charles Marowitz’s case, a critic can be a terrific playwright.

We’re not referring to Marowitz’s nutty reworkings of Shakespeare, of which he has always been inexplicably proud, but his seemingly light entertainment, “Sherlock’s Last Case.”

Director Ken Rugg, though, has helped elicit the serious underside of this piece of original Holmesiana in a swift, punchy and surpassingly intelligent revival at the Long Beach Playhouse.

Marowitz continues to write a theater criticism column for the L.A. View news weekly, but a revisit to “Sherlock’s Last Case” (which enjoyed a wonderful staging at L.A. Actors’ Theatre more than 10 years ago) underlines the point that Marowitz is wasting his time on the wrong craft.

While much of his criticism suffers from carping generalities, a strained pseudo-British brand of English and familiar bogey men--The Taper, showcase productions, illiterate critics--his stab at Sherlock is specific, convincingly British and cleverly able to turn the familiar into something different. If ever there were a case of a writer finding his metier, this is it.

The ingenious heart of the play is the furtive conflict between sleuth Holmes (Reed Boyer) and his trusted partner, Dr. Watson (Jim Miller). Wouldn’t Watson, Marowitz asks, begin to tire of Holmes’ overwhelming ego and cocksureness, and stage a little man’s revolt against the detective superstar?

Marowitz essentially pushes this pair’s inherent incompatibility to the surface, while using the Holmes genre as a gleeful device for playing with the idea of performance and hidden identities.

The brilliance of Marowitz’s design is that these double layers are packaged in the kind of breezy, intriguing entertainment even Conan Doyle would be hard-pressed to match.

It’s also the kind of show where almost nothing can be revealed and where even the program probably gives away too much. What slowly unravels in Marowitz’s world is Holmes’ own total control of his life and the rising bitterness of Watson and Holmes’ abused maid, Mrs. Hudson (Linda Van Dine). For just as Holmes is basking in his ultimate victory over his arch-nemesis Moriarty, the bad man’s grown children seem prepared for revenge.

The trick in letting this piece’s superb gamesmanship play out is for no one to let on about Marowitz’s dramaturgical game. Thus, Boyer’s Holmes is absolutely true to the outline of Conan Doyle (he resembles a younger Jeremy Brett) and not some stylized, ironic version. He also reads the role with fierce command.

Miller gives us the Watson we’ve always loved, but his jealous side also flows naturally from the comfortable old chap we thought we knew. Tasha Witkin has a ball in this show and . . . well, let’s leave it at that. Martin Berkowitz’s crusty inspector almost smells of 19th-Century London.

Even though parts of Corey Holst’s set are forced by this theater’s semi-arena space to be extremely upstage, it’s a period setting the actors feel comfortable in. They could have been lost in the set, or the dense, rapid-fire British, or the double, triple and quadruple psychological twists, or the play’s deliberate artifice. Instead, they skillfully make it their own.

See, Mr. Marowitz? Local theater isn’t all bad.

* “Sherlock’s Last Case,” 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 4. $10-$15. (310) 494-1616.

Reed Boyer: Sherlock Holmes

Jim Miller: Dr. Watson

Linda Van Dine: Mrs. Hudson

Martin Berkowitz: Inspector Lestrade

Tasha WitkinL: Liza Moriarty

A Long Beach Playhouse production of Charles Marowitz’ play. Directed by Ken Rugg. Set: Corey Holst. Lights: Michelle Evans. Costumes: Donna Fritsche.