'A Sherlock Carol' at Austin Playhouse

The mysterious death of Ebenezer Scrooge is at the center of Austin Playhouse's production of a Sherlock Carol opening this Friday. Brennan Pratchett, who plays Sherlock Holmes, joins us this morning with a preview of this holiday whodunit. Good morning. Good morning. So thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell us a little bit about what people can expect when they go to this play? Yeah, put very simply, it's a play about Sherlock Holmes solving the death. of Ebenezer Scrooge. Put a little less simply, it takes place a few decades after the Scrooge you've come to know in A Christmas Carol. He's become a beloved elder statesman of the community, and he's died under mysterious circumstances. So Tiny Tim, character from A Christmas Carol, who's now an adult man and a doctor, approaches Sherlock Holmes and asks him, please solve the mysterious death of Ebenezer Scrooge. A real whodunit. Yeah, the... The only catch is that Sherlock Holmes is not the man he used to be. Moriarty, his arch nemesis, has passed away. And so he's depressed. He's crusted over. He's checked out. He's a lot like Ebenezer Scrooge was at the start of A Christmas Carol. And so he very reluctantly takes on this case. So it's a story about him rediscovering himself in a similar manner to how Scrooge did in A Christmas Carol. And also solving a mystery at the same time. That sounds so fun. What made you want to be a part of this project? I'm a big fan of Austin Playhouse, I've seen several of their shows, been in one previously this year, so I just really respect them and the work that they do. I like Sherlock Holmes and A Christmas Carol, I read the show beforehand and I thought it was a really deft marriage of the two, because you get the emotional story of seeing a guy Rediscover himself and rediscover empathy for his fellow man, be visited by spirits. And then you also get like a really proper mystery that like makes sense by the end. If you're watching it, by the end of the story, if you've been following along, you'll be surprised and you'll also be able to think back and go, oh, I see how all the clues actually line up and make sense. Right. So I think it satisfies like both things that you're coming to it for. And so that was really exciting for me. So you won't be leaving the head, you know, still scratching your head like, oh. What happened there, but, you know, this tale has been around for forever, essentially, and so how is this going to bring it for, you know, new generations or for people who have never heard about this story before? Yeah, I think Mark Shanahan did a great job of, like, braiding these two beloved characters together. They both take place in Victorian England, so, you know, that was a great setting for him to combine the two. And I think that he manages to find a core theme. In each story that still resonates, I guess to me one of them is like Finding like moral justice outside of the law. You know, Scrooge has to be visited by mysterious spirits in order to like change his ways. And Sherlock Holmes is a private detective. He's always at odds with the police, you know? He's sort of a vigilante guy having to use his wits in order to solve crimes. And so I think he managed to find like two themes that resonated from both of the stories and combine them. And it's really funny. You know, it's funny, it's lighthearted, it moves like a bullet. And so I think people of all ages are going to get something out of it. Yeah, I love that. And then so finally, before we go, how can people see this? Tickets come out on Friday, correct? Yeah, the show runs November 13th through December 20th, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday are at 8 p.m. We have matinees on Sunday at 2 p.m. And it's at Austin Playhouse, which is at University Baptist Church in West Campus. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Excited to see it. Yeah, thank you.