She moved the dishes first

And so to the theatre. Visceral is a word that is often used metaphorically in reviews of all sorts of things, but applies literally to the play currently on at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Among the attractions of the superb design and staging is an on stage post mortem during which a woman has her liver removed and shown to the audience. The same dead woman makes a gruesome, but gutsy, reappearance during a rather fine druggy dream that Sherlock Holmes (for it is he) experiences. If you are squeamish then don't sit on the left side of the auditorium.

Anyway, the fact that I am referring to the strengths of the set probably gives a clue to the fact that there are problems with some of the other apsects. The acting is OK; it's a bit shouty at times, but that's probably the director's fault. The real issue is with the play itself. Despite being a great fan of the Conan Doyle canon, I have no problem with re-imaginings, pastiche, or any other new mysteries for the great detective to solve. However, in my opinion, the best of these are those that take on a straightforward middle-of-the-road story. You know the sort of thing: local squire is victim of a mysterious crime that turns out to be related to nefarious doings somewhere in the Empire a generation ago. It's not easy to write a Sherlock Holmes story - even Conan Doyle wrote some stinkers (The Man with the Twisted Lip anyone?) - and that's why the closer to the base model the better.

The world's greatest detective

But authors often just can't resist shovelling in as many references as possible from existing stories. Anthony Horowitz did just that with House of Silk, and undermined the strength of his spot-on version of the Watsonian authorial voice. Mark Catley does the same here, throwing everything into the mix: Irene Adler, Mycroft, unrequited homosexual passion, steampunk and of course the drugs and it's all too much. Less would have been more. The plot isn't so brilliant. Not only is it obvious where it's going, but the solution relies on a coup de theatre rather than rationcination. There are some funny moments and the author manages to include the phrase "No shit, Sherlock." to the delight of the audience.