Show: 26
Category: Comedy / Mystery / Literary adaptation
By: Fearless Comedy Productions
Created by: Tim Wick & Jami Newstrom
Location: Mixed Blood Theatre
Summary: A mashup of two of the most beloved mystery stories: Murder on the Orient Express and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Highlights: This is a very funny, clever, well-written show. Putting two of English literature's favorite detectives (Poirot and Holmes) together* is a fun idea, and the show plays on the idiosyncrasies of both characters. Like in Orient Express, Belgian (not French!) detective Hercule Poirot is traveling by train when he happens upon a woman - a Baskerville heir - who's afraid someone is trying to murder her. She has enlisted the services of famous detective Sherlock Holmes, setting up a bit of a rivalry between the two detectives. But Holmes isn't actually on the train, he's sent his trusty assistant Watson. Ms. Baskerville tells the two men her story (with some fun feminist commentary on the damsel in distress trope). Poirot interviews everyone on the train, and of course solves the mystery. The set quickly and cleverly transforms from the sleeping cabins to the dining car and back again. Everyone in the cast is great, particularly Edwin Strout as the mustachioed detective, Angela Fox as the slightly amnesiac Ms. Baskerville, and Dawn Krosnowski stealing scenes as multiple characters (who all come together in the end). Their final performance is today, the final day of Fringe, so you still have time to see this fun, clever, well executed mashup.
Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.
*For more Holmes/Poirot fan fiction, go see Park Square Theatre's return this after a couple dark years with the original play Holmes Poirot by Jeffrey Hatcher and Steve Hendrickson.
