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Health & Fitness

'Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure' Comes to Chatham Playhouse

Chatham Players present show March 7 to 22.

Calling all Sherlock Holmes Fans!! The Chatham Players presents “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure” by Stephen Dietz, running March 7 - 22, 2014 at the Chatham Playhouse.

Join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they face off against arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty, in the Stephen Dietz story inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The case takes Holmes on a final adventure, which includes kidnapping, numerous disguises, underhand plotting twists and turns and a whole series of clues which even has the super sleuth’s sidekick scratching his head. 

Will Holmes prevail against the evil mastermind, Professor Moriarty and resist the lure of Irene Adler?  With danger lurking around every corner, how can the Bloodhound of Baker Street possibly survive his final adventure? “Holmes aficionados will recognize the source material as a clever conflation of the original stories, “The Final Problem,” “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and “A Study in Scarlet.” Of course, being fully drawn characters, Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, et al possess their fair share of humor, providing many laughs and light-hearted moments throughout this fast-paced, suspenseful, and deadly adventure”, explains director, Gordon Wiener.

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Comprised of actors from all around New Jersey, this exciting and bright bunch includes Mike Harvey from Summit as Sherlock Holmes, Howard Fischer of Berkeley Heights as John Watson, Christopher C. Gibbs from Fanwood as Professor Moriarity, Chip Prestera of Stirling as King of Bohemia, Kathleen Campbell Jackson of Far Hills as Irene Adler, Patrick Field of Manhattan as James Larrabee/ Godfrey Norton, Pat Wry of Bernardsville as Madge Larrabee and Sean Day from Newark as Sid Prince.

Leading the artistic team is Director Gordon Wiener of Bridgewater, who is making his directorial debut at the Chatham Playhouse.  Gordon has been acting and directing in Central NJ Community Theater for many years. For Circle Players in Piscataway, he directed “A Behanding in Spokane”, “Lost in Yonkers”, “The Drawer Boy’, “The Cripple of Inishmaan”, “The Waverly Gallery”, “The Real Thing”, and a 2011 production of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure’. At other venues, his favorite productions include “Angel Street” and “The Price” at Westfield Community Players, ”The Nerd” and “Joined at the Head” for Carnival Productions in Rahway, and “Painting Churches”, “On Borrowed Time”, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, and “I Never Sang For My Father” at the Philathalians of Fanwood.

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Being a die-hard Sherlock Holmes fan, Gordon Wiener pointed out that the acting script of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure” begins with a note from its author, Steven Dietz, who based this amalgam of tales from the Holmes canon on the William Gillette play “Sherlock Holmes,” which premiered in 1899. In it, Gillette reminds those of us whose job it is to bring life to his words that these stories are “proudly and unapologetically archetypal,” with clearly delineated heroes and villains, and that Holmes is “modern in the extreme” in that he “craves adventure, solitude, escape and elation.” He also reminds us that the foundational element of these tales is the bedrock of friendship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. One could argue that Conan
Doyle and Gillette should be credited with providing the blueprint for the “cops as buddies” movies that are so familiar to us now. Wiener added, “it is this friendship that allows us a way in; to relate to all of the characters within the tale by rendering them as completely human, along with all that that implies. The fact is, (virtually) everyone who sits in our audience brings with them ready-made conceptions about at least some of the characters they are about to be re-introduced to. Our hope is to uncover the textures, the details, the incidents small and momentous, that surprise, delight, and entertain us, while
remaining true to the material Conan Doyle, Gillette, and Dietz have so skillfully woven.”

Rounding out Wiener’s talented production team, the Producer is Mara Lundstrom, Stage Manager is Andrea Herbert, Scenic Designer is Roy Pancirov, Scenic Painting by Andrea Sickler, Costume Designer is Bev Wand, Lighting Designer is Henry Siebecker and Sound Designer is Joe DeVico, Production Coordinator is Eileen Johnston.

Box Office Information – Online Ticketing
Performance dates are March 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 8PM and March 16 at 3PM. All performances are at the Chatham Playhouse, 23 North Passaic Avenue, in Chatham.  Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for youth/senior.

Tickets can be purchased at our Box Office or Online. To access the theater’s online ticketing service, simply go to ccp.ticketleap.com.  The service is available 24 hours a day, and tickets can be purchased online up until three hours prior to curtain on the day of a performance.  Chatham Playhouse’s box office will begin accepting phone reservations on February 28 at (973) 635-7363.  For information regarding box office hours, please call the box office number listed above.

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