Stage Review - Miss Holmes (Port Angeles Community Players)

Stage Review - Miss Holmes
Presented By: Port Angeles Community Players - Port Angeles, WA
Show Run: May 29 - June 14, 2026
Date Reviewed: Saturday, May 30, 2026 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed by: Cathy W. Dodd

Miss Holmes reimagines Sherlock and Watson as two brilliant Victorian women who refuse to stay in the narrow roles society has assigned them. Miss Sherlock Holmes, eccentric, razor‑sharp, and socially inconvenient, teams up with Dr. Dorothy Watson, a compassionate physician who’s already pushing boundaries simply by practicing medicine.

Their newest case arrives in the form of Lizzie Chapman, a young bride terrified that her new husband — the respected Inspector Thomas Chapman — may be killing his wives. The authorities dismiss her fears, of course. A hysterical woman? A decorated policeman? Case closed. Sherlock and Watson are not so easily convinced.

As they dig deeper, they uncover a web of corruption, intimidation, and Victorian patriarchy working exactly as designed. The more they investigate, the more dangerous the case becomes — not just for Lizzie, but for the two women daring to expose the truth. Along the way they outwit Scotland Yard, dodge social expectations, and rely on a network of other women who’ve learned to survive in a world that underestimates them. It’s Sherlock Holmes, but with corsets, feminism, and significantly fewer pipe‑smoke fumes.

You will not be disappointed by the Port Angeles Community Players’ production of Miss Holmes. In fact, you will be delighted, amused and adequately bemused.

Let’s start with the fact that director Janice Parks has incorporated steam punk into the production and it is delightful. Think of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey, Jr. – which is considered steam-punk light. This production was reminiscent of that. And PACP pulled it off beautifully. There were fun brass gadgets that the actors cleverly used, steam punk machinery placed strategically on the set and the costumes, oh the costumes!

But first the set. Set Designer, Randy Powell, who you will hear more about in a bit since he is also one of the actors, did a top-notch job designing a set befitting of 1880’s England. There are brick walls and lots of doors with delineations that make them appear to be flats in Victorian London. They are cleverly done and well-thought out and well managed by the actors. The lighting, by Ken Winters, gave the set the proper amount of dark street nuance that made me feel like I was in the middle of a creepy, fog-laden London alley awaiting Jack the Ripper. But that was only half the stage.  On the other side of the stage, it was designed to be transformed into several different locations. The audience found itself, alternatively, in Miss Holmes’ flat, Mrs. Featherstone’s house, the Chapman flat, Bedlam or the women’s hospital as the scenes demanded.

Now the costumes. Oh, the costumes. Costume Designer Shelley Wright outdid herself on this production. The costumes were spot-on Victorian steam punk. If the actors weren’t so good, the costumes would have stolen the show! From the incredible hats in all their bedazzled glory to the period shoes on the performers’ feet and everything in between, everyone was a wonderful sight to behold.  I could go into greater detail about these marvelous costumes, but you really must go and see them for yourself.

The show was perfectly cast by Parks with nine actors and an understudy. Let’s begin with Miss Holmes herself. Local actor, Merrin Packer, who is very familiar to PACP audiences, was the perfect Miss Holmes. And I don’t use the word ‘perfect’ lightly. Packer played the role in such a way that you were aware Holmes was ignorant of social norms, but that she really did want to try to bend, a bit, to accommodate a ‘friendship’ with Miss, excuse me, Doctor Watson. Holmes is smart and can’t understand why others can’t keep up. But she is oblivious to conventionality. Packer has a great sense of comedic timing and is so charming in her role, you want to see Holmes succeed, despite her peculiarities. Packer had a huge lift in the title role, and she carried off each line with precision, aplomb and always a touch of whimsy.

Amanda Knobel played Dr. Dorothy Watson. She played the understated sidekick in such a delightful manner. When Watson is approached by Holmes, who terrifies everyone else, Watson, who has seen worse on battlefields, is immune to Sherlock’s chaos. Knobel shows us the hesitant, rule-obeying Watson in a way we can understand but then her defiant “I’m a woman doctor in 1880s Victorian England, hear me roar” attitude steps in to be nearly as defiant and radical as her cohort, Holmes. And the audience loves it and her. Knobel was delightful in this role.

The young wife who receives a letter warning her that her husband has murdered past wives, is played beautifully by Anna Risinger.  As Lizzy Chapman, Risinger played the distraught, confused and frightened wife to a ‘t’. She was very believable and suitably panicked.  As many in this show do, Risinger played several parts. She also played the roles of Peggy and Martha. So well, in fact, I didn’t know she was the one playing them. Great job!

Another actor with the formidable responsibility of carrying more than one role is the talented Sharon DelaBarre. She played Dr. Anderson (another female doctor at the women’s hospital), Eudora Featherstone (a sick old woman who is mourning the death of her daughter) and Mrs. Hudson (Miss Holmes’ put upon, bedraggled and longsuffering housekeeper). And she played each with such ease, skill and confidence that it was a simple transition for the audience to make. She changed her costumes, her accent, her demeanor seamlessly and we went willingly with her.

Let me do a little aside here since I mentioned accents and just say that for the most part people had some great British dialects. There was high English and Cockney. There was even some Irish thrown in by one of the housekeepers at one point. Or a street person. Or both.  Well done!

Moving back to cast members, Sean Stone, who is known to theater goers in PA and Sequim, played Lizzy’s husband, Thomas Chapman. The suspect. The murderer? Stone is an imposing figure, and he uses this to his advantage as he plays Chapman who bullies, threatens and manipulates his way through the show. He is also an investigator at Scotland Yard who is suspiciously charming, suspiciously respected and suspiciously surrounded by dead spouses. Stone plays a most convincing Chapman.

Another inspector at Scotland Yards was Inspector Lestrade, played by Randy Powell (aka the Set Designer). Powell plays Lestrade as a rather dour, but certainly more straight forward and honest inspector than Chapman. He, too, is well known to PAPC audiences, and is delightful to watch on stage. He portrays Lestrade in an honest, sincere and believable way, such that he has the audience rooting for him with fingers crossed, hoping he is right.

In the Playbill, Justin Stapleton is listed as the Understudy, but he played Mycroft Holmes, Miss Holmes’ brother, at the show I attended and the night before as well. I was also informed that he had had only two weeks to prepare for that role and I must say, he performed the role brilliantly. As the no-nonsense brother, Mycroft seems to be hell bent on putting Sherlock in the infamous Bedlam insane asylum, looking for any reason to have her locked up.  Many kudos to Stapleton for stepping in and stepping up to perform this role so masterfully.

William Stone played the Superintendent at Bedlam as well as Edward Greener, who had a pivotal role in solving the mystery. I particularly liked Stone’s portrayal of Greener in the alley scene. His accent was great and he played the part of the beleaguered and conflicted Greener very well.

Last, but certainly not least, is Jessup Coffin, the actor who expertly played four different roles: Reginald, the alcoholic, opportunistic nephew of Mrs. Featherstone, Dr. Stamford, the rebuffed suitor of Dr. Watson, Cabie and an orderly.  While I quite liked his portrayal of the miscreant Reginald, by far my favorite role was him as the somewhat downtrodden Dr. Stamford. Though his repeated offers of marriage to Dr. Watson are always turned down, he still rose to the occasion and assisted in a very important, and hysterical, mission.

.Which reminds me to tell you, while there are many, many scene changes they are not long nor particularly intrusive. As Director Parks describes in her director’s notes: The script “does not have scene numbers. Instead, it gives a title to each scene much like the titles of chapters in a novel. I wanted to share these with you, so be sure to look for them in the projections that will be above the center arch on stage.” Definitely read those titles as they not only give you direction as to what’s happening next and where you are, some are quite funny as well. (Especially during that “mission” I mentioned above.)

Sherlock and Watson follow clues, dodge danger, and rely on a stealthy network of women who pass intel like it’s Victorian Girl Code. In the end, Holmes and Watson become an unstoppable duo and Victorian patriarchy remains annoyed.

Miss Holmes is a mystery full of clever deductions, sharp humor, twists and turns and a triumphant message: when the world won’t protect women, women protect each other. And PACP delivers that message well.

The Port Angeles Community Players production of Miss Holmes runs on stage through June 14. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://pacommunityplayers.org/.

Photo credit: Cathy Dodd