Taking a break from his more regular roles in Shakespeare, this winter, Christopher Prentice adds to his repertoire of classic characters another notable literary personage—one of the most famous in the Western canon: Sherlock Holmes.
In A Baker Street Christmas Caper, adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Peter Garino, Chris plays the consulting detective opposite Gary Houston as Dr. Watson in a holiday production for The Shakespeare Project of Chicago.
Directed by Garino, the cast also features John Kishline, Daniel Millhouse, Henry Michael Odum, David Skidmore, Danni Smith, and Grace Smith. George Zahora is the composer and sound designer.
The sold-out production runs Dec. 14 and 15 at the Niles-Maine District and Newberry libraries, respectively.
For more info, visit shakespeareprojectchicago.org.
My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.
“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” by Arthur Conan Doyle
Playing Holmes, Chris trails a line of celebrated Shakespeareans who have taken on Holmes or Watson (or both)—trying his best to not be too obvious with the bits he’s “borrowed”—from Rathbone, Gielgud, and Richardson to Cushing, Plummer, Brett, Cumberbatch, and McKellen.
Chris’s own well-known literary and historical roles include Robin Hood, John Wilkes Booth, William Burke (one of the world’s first serial killers), Picasso, Jacques Marquette (in an upcoming film), Saint Edmund Campion, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Mark Antony.
Image courtesy The Shakespeare Project of Chicago.
