Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt For Moriarty? - Nick Lane Interview

Blackeyed Theatre will tour a world premiere of Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty by Nick Lane, based on the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This major UK touring production will open at Theatre Royal Winchester this September before touring to theatres across the UK until May 2026.

London, 1901. As the British Empire wages war in the name of a Queen whose health is failing, a series of mysterious events reveals a crack in the high corridors of power that threatens to destabilise monarchy, government and Empire. At its centre, controlling the flow of information and influence, is a shadowy figure planning a final deadly move.

With powerful performances, a thrilling soundscape and innovative design, this new production interweaves a selection of Sherlock Holmes short stories into a single narrative.

Drawn into the game and unsure who to trust, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves confronting figures from their past in a desperate race against time, aware that the most powerful person in the world could be in the pocket of one of the most corrupt. But just how much is Holmes willing to sacrifice as he faces 'checkmate'?

The cast comprises Mark Knightley (The Colours, Soho Theatre; The Listening Room, The Lowry, Northern Stage, Theatr Clwyd) as Sherlock Holmes, Ben Owora (Still Breathing, Unlock The Chains Collective; Mary Queen of Scots, English National Opera) as Doctor Watson and Pippa Caddick (The Weyard Sisters, Riverside Studios; Witches of God – Amazon Prime) as Irene Adler and Mrs Hudson. They are joined by, Gavin Molloy (Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear, Blackeyed Theatre; The Alchemist, Riverside Studios) as Professor Moriarty and Inspector Lestrade, Robbie Capaldi (Do You Believe In Ghosts?, Adelphi Theatre, West End; Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Universal/Warner Brothers) as Sir James DeWilde and Eliot Giuralarocca (Witness for the1Prosecution, London County Hall; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Harold Pinter Theatre, West End) as Mycroft Holmes.

Ahead of the tour we spoke to writer and director Nick Lane to learn more.

What can you tell me about Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt For Moriarty?
Blimey. What do you want to know?! It’s Blackeyed Theatre’s third Conan Doyle adaptation, and after adapting two of the four full-length Sherlock Holmes stories (The Sign of Four in 2018 and The Valley of Fear in 2022) Adrian (McDougall,Artistic Director, Blackeyed Theatre) – and I were keen on exploring some of the wonderful short stories, or “Adventures,” as Conan Doyle refers to them, that make up the bulk of the Holmes canon. It’s in the short stories that we find the most significant contribution of the character generally considered to be Holmes’ nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and considering the audience reaction we had to his very brief appearance in our adaptation of The Valley of Fear, it seemed like a fun opportunity to explore that rivalry. So, I read (or in some cases re-read) all the stories, identified those that fit well together tonally, created an overarching plot that drew everything together… and that’s where we’re at!

Can you remember when your first encounter was with Sherlock Holmes?
I can indeed. When I was a kid, on Saturdays my mum would drop me and my sister off at my nana and grandad’s house while she did the weekly shop (and probably had a couple of hours off from us shouting, running about, asking for food and so on). Generally speaking we’d play together but I remember clearly that there was a point during the afternoon, probably while nana was playing with my sister, when I was plonked in front of the telly with my grandad to watch the film on BBC Two (it was Grandstand on BBC One and World of Sport on ITV at that time, and grandad was no sports fan). These films were almost always in black and white, were regularly dramatic and one year, as far as I remember, they worked through the whole Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Holmes and Watson films. This might be a false memory; they might have been far more spread out than that, but it was invariably at my nana and grandad’s house where I first encountered the great detective. 

What do you think it is about the character that has made its legacy endure?
It’s a few things, I think. First and foremost the stories are remarkably well-written – Conan Doyle was a very accomplished and rather witty writer, and the characters and incidents absolutely leap off the page. I believe, though I’m no expert, that at the time crime fiction was not as prevalent as it is today, and so Doyle’s creation – these wonderful cases, released monthly in magazines and publications here in England and then across the world, gave the audience a thrill largely unmatched among his contemporaries. The complicated, outlandish, sometimes horrific but always intriguing cases seem to present an almost impossible challenge for Holmes, and yet time and again by applying his “Special methods” he is able to foil the most dastardly of criminals. This, I think, is what must have cemented his appeal. Another facet of Conan Doyle’s genius was in using Holmes and his cases as a way of taking his readers across the world, or to show them different political ideas or philosophies that they might otherwise not have encountered. In The Valley of Fear we are thrown into the world of organised crime (specifically the case of the Molly Maguires, a real-life Irish immigrant gang in the coal belt of America that Doyle renamed The Scowrers for his story), but other stories dealt with the Ku Klux Klan, the Mafia, the state of British colonialism, racism, slavery, class prejudice… so I think this too is key to why Holmes remains iconic among British crime literature, but why the character has endured in my opinion is as much down to the way Holmes is drawn as anything else. Doyle created, crafted and finely tuned two wonderful central figures – both in Holmes and his best friend, his foil and the cataloguer of his cases, Dr. Watson – and their relationship is so brilliantly conceived and just so real that I simply don’t think you can resist them. Has that answered the question? Sorry; I feel like I’ve just waffled on for ages!

What challenges does adapting a work of Arthur Conan Doyle bring?
You’ve got to do him and the stories justice. That’s the first thing, I think. That’s not to say you can’t play around with things like chronology or move things to help make the staging of a particular production your own, but these characters and these plots are so intricate, so delicate, that if you mess them up then you run the risk of not bringing Holmes and Watson to the stage as Doyle saw them. Now, that sounds horribly restrictive when you read that but obviously the joy of Doyle’s novels, as with all great art, is that we all take different things from it, so what I consider to be Doyle’s intention for Holmes, say, might differ from what your perception is, but I do think there are certain fundamentals of personality that go beyond the pipe and deerstalker. The other challenge is, I think, true of bringing any work of crime fiction to the stage – that of how to tell or frame the case. Crime fiction in prose form, particularly the detective procedural novel, tends to consist largely of reported action – you know; cases are by and large presented to Holmes after the crime has been committed, so the trick is in finding ways to bring that reported action to life without it descending into lots of scenes interviewing people and dissecting evidence. In a novel that can be quite gripping, but on stage it may end up becoming rather repetitive, and that’s what you want to avoid. This one’s been interesting since we’re actually using elements from five or six of the adventures, but I think we’ve managed to balance discovery and action. I hope we have anyway!

How do you approach blending the roles of writer and director?
It’s something I’ve been lucky enough to do a fair bit of, and whilst I’d say that each project is different my general approach is to always have at least half an eye on the other role. As an example, while I’m writing I might reach a point in a scene where I’ve had a character exit and I know that actor will need to be in the next scene but as someone else, so as a director I’ll know that the end of the scene not only needs to drive and push us forward but also needs to be long enough to give that actor time to change! And obviously in rehearsals, as a director if something isn’t working or sounding the way I’d imagined when I’m writing I can make a note to alter that either in the moment or at the end of the day so the actors get a fresh crack at a better-written scene the next morning. 

How do you approach the bringing in of sound, lighting and even set when you are developing a script?
Ah, now for this question I can absolutely defer to the fantastic design team that Blackeyed has assembled. I have rough ideas for moments like lighting changes, when to use music (and what tone or mood I want that music to convey) and what the set might look like, but I’m lucky in as much as Tristan, Victoria and Ollie – the sound, set and lighting designers respectively – they just get it. We have conversations of course, and it’s a nice working environment for sharing ideas and feeding off each other, but generally everything I get is at least as good as anything I’d had in my head anyway so I’ve come to trust them absolutely. That’s true of all members of the company, I should add – I’m very keen on inclusivity and ownership, and everyone in the process has a voice.

What research do you do when preparing for a piece like this?
A lot of reading on this one, that’s for sure. Once I’d picked the stories that I wanted to bring together I looked at texts on certain events in late Victorian history that might serve not just as backdrop but that might provide a particular drive for certain characters. I’m a big fan of history anyway, so I always love that part of the work. As I mentioned earlier, something Conan Doyle did with his Holmes stories was to use them to perhaps open up a wider conversation; something that not only added to the world his characters inhabit but that gave the readers something to think about and question. So it was fun to have a play with that kind of research too… I appreciate that that’s quite a cryptic answer but I don’t want to give too much away! 

If you were able to ask Arthur Conan Doyle a question about Sherlock, what would you choose to ask him?
One? Just one question? I’m not sure I’d know where to start. Okay, I’ll go with this – in a fair number of the stories, after having heard confessions from the various perpetrators of the crimes he’s solved, Holmes frees, or at least does not continue to personally pursue, those characters. He takes a personal and moral judgment as opposed to following the rule of law. Was that a difficult choice for you in conceiving Holmes as a character? I know, it’s a bit of a mouthful, and maybe Sir Arthur’s response would be a flat, “No,” but I’m intrigued nonetheless. I think the general perception of Holmes as a character is that he always gets his man (or woman), that they always do time and that his belief in justice and the law is absolute, and yet, for a character so immersed in process, observation and logical deduction, he does often let people literally get away with murder!

What was the first piece of theatre you saw that had a big impact on you?
I remember seeing Blood Brothers when that first toured, which was great – I think I must have been fourteen or fifteen at the time. I mean, I saw a fair amount of theatre as a kid – not loads, but stuff here and there. I absolutely loved The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth (I know; bit of a mouthful – do look it up. I’ve not dreamt it, I promise). Again I’d have been about fourteen or fifteen, and could barely breathe for laughing… but I do think the play that had the biggest impact on me was John Godber’s peerless Salt of the Earth, a play about the decline of the mining industry from the end of the second world war to the aftermath of the 1984 miner’s strike, as seen through the eyes of one family. Funny, moving, powerful, dreamlike, beautifully staged, and – because I’m Doncaster born and raised, in the heart of the South Yorkshire coalfields – so real. It opened my eyes to what was possible on stage. I worked for, and with, John for a number of years after seeing that play. He’s a lovely bloke, a wonderful writer and Salt of the Earth is, for me, his masterpiece. 

What keeps you inspired?
Loads of things! Being alive, being lucky enough to get to do this, having people around me that I love, working with people that you can bounce ideas off, reading a good book, watching a great play – honestly, all of it!

What do you hope someone takes away from seeing Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty?
Well, what you want is for the audience to go away chatting about it and ready to recommend it, and the best way to do that is to give them a rattling good time. I don’t have any higher philosophical aspirations than that; audiences have given their time and their money for a good night, with a title like The Hunt for Moriarty there are certain expectations… you want to meet some of those expectations and hopefully exceed others, and I could go on for ages about the various themes explored within the subtext of the stories and how we’ve tried to update that, and how that might inspire further conversations in the bar or in the car on the way home, but really it amounts to no more or less than what we’ve already said – give the audience a good time.

Where can audiences see the show and grab tickets from?
I guess the best place to start would be Blackeyed Theatre’s website, from which you should be able to find out where the play is touring and what the nearest venue to you is… which I hope you’re all doing as soon as you’ve finished reading this!

Visit https://blackeyedtheatre.co.uk/shows-2/shows/sherlock-holmes-and-the-hunt-for-moriarty/ for full tour information and tickets.