“The Game’s Afoot” as McKinney Repertory Theatre produces a hilarious Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery this October

At the turn of the 20th century, actor William Gillette helped create the iconic image we share in our heads of the literary sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Gillette co-wrote the original stage adaptation of Sherlock Holmes with the character’s author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In a series of more than 1,000 performances onstage as the detective, Gillette would then popularize Holmes’ curved smoking pipe, traveling jacket and iconic deerstalker hat in a role that would help make him famous. He even developed the precursor to Holmes’ famous catchphrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” by delivering the line “Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow.”

Audiences should expect anything but the elementary, however, when it comes to the latest McKinney Repertory Theatre production, “The Game’s Afoot,” running October 4-12 at the McKinney Performing Arts Center. The Ken Ludwig-written comedy follows an over-the-top fictionalized rendition of William Gillette as he adopts his Holmes persona to attempt to solve a murder at a dinner party gone wrong in his own Connecticut castle.

Directed by Tatum Love, the production stars Sam Jack as the eccentric William Gillette. “Gillette is very larger than life, and I think Sam embodies that so perfectly,” Love says, praising the actor’s “very natural comedic ability onstage.”

The director and actor are both recent UNT graduates, with Jack having starred as the lead in Love’s directorial debut at the university. Now working together at McKinney Repertory Theatre, the two have set about creating a hilarious whodunnit led by Gillette’s less-than-capable investigative abilities.

“He does not have the rationale to be the world’s great detective,” Jack says, explaining the humor in finding the different nuances within Gillette. “He has the finances, the castle and the costuming, but the beautiful balance of William is that he can play it off with sheer charisma and that sheer flamboyant-type energy he just brings to every aspect of his life.”

Unlike the real-life Gillette who found celebrity through his impressive performances as Sherlock Holmes, Jack wants to ensure audiences never feel as if they’re watching someone capable of being Holmes in the comedy. “This is like a Shakespearean actor finding his spotlight,” Jack says, detailing how he references the “bigger than life” Shakespearean actors of the 20th century like Laurence Olivier who add “a lot of bravado” to their performances. “Whenever (Gillette) does melt into this Sherlock Holmes-type character, it’s less of ‘I’m portraying a character of pure intellect’ and more ‘This is my chance to portray a hero and the modern-day knight in shining armor.’”

Every knight needs a castle, and McKinney Repertory Theatre has helped create Love’s vision for her rendition of Gillette’s true-to-life castle onstage. Love says the show calls for “extravagance everywhere” and thus envisioned a set that’s as “extravagant as (Gillette) is.” “It’s really colorful, very gaudy furniture,” Love says. There’s even a portrait of Gillette that Jack painted himself on the set. She adds that the castle also contains some unexpected surprises one might suspect from an actor known for playing a genius detective.

Those surprises extend to the reference-filled, laugh-out-loud script. Love describes how the script was the first to make her laugh while she was just reading it alone. She says that she and Jack are still “finding new things every rehearsal” working on the show.

“I would say maybe one out of every 10 lines is a direct pull, either from Shakespeare or from one of Sherlock Holmes’ mysteries,” Jack says, recalling a specific phrasing he recently discovered came from a Holmes story. He adds that both the crimes and sleuthing also often involve specific references to different Holmes stories. “This is definitely a love letter to all the classic works of Conan Doyle,” Jack says.

When audiences have a chance to experience the show for themselves, Love hopes the McKinney Repertory Theatre production of “The Game’s Afoot” provides “a sense of escapism” as they enjoy the comedy, mystery-solving and references to past Holmes stories throughout the show.

“Speaking from my end, I hope (audiences) come and enjoy a mystery the likes of which they’ve never seen before,” Jack says of his own hopes for “The Game’s Afoot.”

The McKinney Repertory Theatre production of “The Game’s Afoot” runs from October 4-12 at the McKinney Performing Arts Center. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit the McKinney Performing Arts Center ticketing page here.

These interviews were edited for clarity. McKinney Repertory Theatre is an official advertiser with the Collin-Denton Spotlighter. Advertising does not guarantee coverage, nor does it affect the content of any coverage on the Spotlighter.