Ken Ludwig's Moriarty

Ken Ludwig's Moriarty begins with a packet of stolen letters and a client who cannot afford to be named, and ends somewhere much larger: a conspiracy of spies, blackmail and sabotage with Professor Moriarty's hand behind every turn of it. Sherlock Holmes has met his match, and he knows it.

Watson narrates, as ever, and the actress Irene Adler turns out to be a great deal more useful than either man expects. The chase runs from the consulting room to a railway carriage to a rooftop, the disguises multiply, and the stakes climb from a private embarrassment to something that could set whole countries against each other. The mystery is tightly plotted, and the comedy runs alongside it rather than interrupting it.

Ken Ludwig wrote the play, working from Arthur Conan Doyle's characters rather than adapting any single existing story, and it had its first production in 2023. It is built for a company of five actors playing more than forty parts, so quick changes, doubling and sleight of hand are written into the structure rather than imposed on it afterwards.

The tone is comedy-adventure: suspenseful when it needs to be, but happiest when the plot is racing and the audience can see the join. Much of the pleasure lies in watching a small cast conjure an entire world out of a hat, an accent and a change of light, and in Ludwig's ear for the manner of the original stories.

It suits audiences who enjoy detective fiction played with a straight face and a wink. It works best live, where the doubling and the timing are visible and the trick is half the entertainment.