SHERLOCK HOLMES FREE SCRIPT DOWNLOAD

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A play for three actors: one female and two males

CONTACT INFORMATION

DOUG WARWICK - TORONTO, CANADA

sherlock@infinity.net

TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL 2008

Watch for details.

PRODUCTION RIGHTS

Please email the playwright for details. Discounts for schools, and amateur productions.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

2000 St. Vlad's Theatre, Toronto, Canada (Seventeen Steps Productions)

2002 Northwest Nazarene University's Little Theatre, Idaho, USA,

(Nampa Charter School)

SYNOPSIS

The play is based on the stern facts, as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard would say. An accidental discovery in 1908 of a supposed prehistoric "missing link" between man and the apes, the Piltdown Man, proved to be a piece of fiction and one of the greatest scientific hoaxes ever devised. The discovery was fully debunked in 1953 using modern analytical science and methods that Sherlock Holmes himself would envy. The perpetrator of the fraud, who is still unknown, has by now, taken the secret to their own grave.

The play begins with the seemingly trivial case of a missing three legged chair. We follow Sherlock Holmes as he gathers clues from the characters we meet in this adventure mystery - a rag and bone merchant (Mrs. Mansfield) who is murdered in a run down Whitechapel shop, an obscure geologist (Professor Skullion) who is killed in a rock slide, the discoverer of the prehistoric Plateau Man (Sir Charles Adamson), his scheming sister (Lady Adamson), and last but not least, a reformed thief (Alfie Trotwood) who ties together the very different worlds of Whitechapel, the British Museum, 221B Baker Street, and the streets of London. Along the way Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are variously attacked by a venomous snake, a tarantula, a booby trapped spring loaded box, and street ruffians. False alarms and red herrings abound. Will Sherlock Holmes be seduced by the alluring Lady Adamson? Are the powers of Sherlock Holmes on the wane, his addiction to cocaine taking its toil? Who is planning to steal the famous Star of Delhi housed in the British Museum? Why is Sherlock imprisoned? Is it of any significance that Alfie Trotwood and Lady Adamson share the same birth date? What is Lady Adamson's connection to Professor Moriarty, and finally, is Professor Moriarty behind it all? From these clues, I ask you to be the judge whether the game is up, or "the game is afoot!"

REVIEWS

Paula Citron - The Globe And Mail, March 15, 2000

"The play has been running for two weeks and word-of-mouth has made it a near sell-out...While the play has tremendous potential...his characterizations, from the detective and Dr. Watson down to the smaller roles, do ring with truth. The company should also be congratulated for turning a bland theatre space into a rather lovely Edwardian theatre via some judicious paint and paneling.....Michael Hanrahan has a field day as Holmes, particularly in the famous detective's love of disguises. Insufferably arrogant, yet with a melancholy air that befits a heroin addict, Hanrahan manages to infuse the famous sleuth with a three-dimensional, charismatic personality."

OTHER NOTICES

Iris Turcott - Canadian Stage

"...clever and quite charming."

AWARDS

Doug Warwick's MURDER BY INTERMISSION was a runner-up in the Atlantis Playmakers SAS Playfest (2002).

BIO

Doug Warwick has worked in many different fields: musician, band leader, composer/arranger, apprentice optician, labourer, driver, public school teacher, and currently as an accountant (CGA). Doug's jazz compositions were recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He played the venerable Montreal Forum with rocker, Garfield French, and had a stint with Zarabanda in Dublin, Ireland. Doug's nine piece band, Rhythm & Reeds played the Toronto scene for several years. His written work has appeared in The Globe And Mail, Ryerson's NightViews, and the North Oakville News. Doug has a B.Mus., B. Ed. and a CGA having attended McMaster, Western, U. of T., Ryerson, Mohawk, Seneca, and York University in Ontario, Canada.

GENESIS OF THE PLAY

Inspired by Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, 2nd movement, Doug started work on a set of lyrics. Having established the mood, the next piece of the puzzle was the subject. Doug recalled a visual memory from his childhood - that of a diagram of a prehistoric man in a dictionary, and coming across the picturesque term, "Piltdown Man". Coincidently, it turns out that Conan Doyle lived only about eight miles from Barkhome Manor, where the gravel pit discovery site was located. Doyle was also interested in geology, archaeology and was an avid collector of fossils. Remember also, he wrote The Lost World. Perfect. The Piltdown Man story seemed tailor made for another Sherlock Holmes tale. The next step was to re-read the entire original Sherlock Holmes tales, enjoy the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce, Jeremy Brett and other versions of the character in film and print form, and devise suitable characters that fit the mood and subject. After studying a myriad of pictures on the subject, making original casts of representations of the Piltdown specimens, recreation of the skull, a bust of a Victorian representation of a prehistoric man, and the various stage devices and props necessary, readings and workshops, and redecorating the entire theatre, the scene was set for the first production in 2000, in Toronto, Canada.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Frederic Dorr Steele 1873 - 1944 (Artist for Sherlock Holmes portrait above).

Elaine Ryan (Publicist)

LINKS

http://www.samuelfrench.com

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece

http://www.simplyscripts.com

http://www.iscript.com

http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/pp_map.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man

http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/piltdown/piltdown.html

http://vl-theatre.com/list4.shtml