The Cast and Production Stage Management Team of Virginia Stage Company’s A Sherlock Carol : (L-R)Patrick Halley, Scott Wichmann, Seth Patterson, Steve Pacek, Sarah Manton, Beatty Barnes, Tia Collier, Emma D. Emde, Rachel Fobbs, and Abbigail LaRocque. Photo by TOC Creative/Glenn Fajota.
By Jerome Langston
“He’s one of my constants. So anything that he does, I’m just immediately drawn to,” says Steve Pacek, the Philly actor, playwright, and director — regarding his creative partnership with acclaimed playwright and actor, Mark Shanahan. It’s late on an unseasonably warm Thursday, and Steve, along with actor Scott Wichmann, have called me to chat about A Sherlock Carol, the highly inventive holiday play being produced by Virginia Stage Company, and performing in rep with their annual holiday classic, A Merry Little Christmas Carol. Steve is directing A Sherlock Carol and is one of the actors starring in this year’s Christmas Carol, both of which are penned by Mark Shanahan, whom Steve has built both a long-running friendship and artistic partnership with.
It’s quite fitting then, that this hit Shanahan holiday show, marks Steve’s mainstage directorial debut at the Wells Theatre, following his lauded work as an actor in a number of prior VSC productions, including last season’s Dial M for Murder and The Legend of Georgia McBride, which was a stand-out in season 41. Scott, previously of Richmond fame as both an actor and musical performer, is now based in Hampton Roads with his wife, who is also an actor. Scott plays the lead role of Sherlock Holmes in A Sherlock Carol. Today is the second day of staging for the show, and these two artistic gentlemen are chatting with me during an evening break in rehearsal. And though they haven’t known each other for a very long time, Steve and Scott clearly have the chemistry of brothers, who share the same creative passions. I ask the director how he came to this project, and what A Sherlock Carol, is really about.
“I was actually part of his development of this piece. When he would work on it, and then he was writing it… he would do readings of it,” says Steve, regarding Mark’s early work on the play. “And so I would step into, mostly the Dr. Timothy Cratchit, all grown-up Tiny Tim, who is a character in this one.” The Philadelphia bred thespian is also just deeply knowledgeable of the Charles Dickens classic, having acted in productions of A Christmas Carol, going back to even his childhood.
“I’ve done so many Christmas Carols over the years, including here at VSC, and so many different adaptations,” he says, later. “Christmas Carol has been a part of my actor journey for my whole life, basically. And then this — what’s so brilliant about it, is it borrows the structure. It borrows some of the characters from Christmas Carol, and/or their descendants of the characters in A Christmas Carol. And mashes it up with one of the most beloved fiction characters from literature of all time, Sherlock Holmes.”
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“Mark’s adaptation is so brilliant,” continues Steve. “It has Holmes kind of stepping into a new version of Scrooge. He’s having a downward spiral, much like Scrooge… Scrooge actually comes back. And is Holmes’s Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, Future, to help him have the transformation and reclamation that he had.”
A Sherlock Carol made its Off-Broadway debut at New World Stages in November of 2021. The production received immediate acclaim, and was a New York Times critic’s pick. A well-executed mash-up of the Charles Dickens literary classic, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes character, the play — mixing comedy, a murder mystery, and music, succeeds largely due to Shanahan’s deep well of knowledge of both of these iconic literary IPs, which is highly demonstrated in his writing. Featuring a cast of six actors, the character of Sherlock Holmes is joined by other classic characters like Dr. Watson and Ebenezer Scrooge. The events of A Sherlock Carol take place a couple of decades following the setting of A Merry Little Christmas Carol, with the Tiny Tim character now being a grown man, seeking help from the Great Detective.
Virginia Stage Company is the first American theatre to produce both shows in repertory, which is quite remarkable considering how connected the two shows are, and that Shanahan wrote them both. They will largely share a set, and actors between both productions. Steve and his design team are peppering the set with likely “easter eggs,” which are also reflected in Mark’s writing. Fans of both Sherlock Holmes and A Christmas Carol, will have much to enjoy, especially if they see both shows.
“The cast is fantastic. I knew a lot of them from having done A Christmas Carol last year, since it’s the same cast in both shows, in rep,” says Steve, later in our conversation. “It’s a wonderful place to make theatre, the Wells. The team here at VSC is great. And this group of actors is just diving in, like wholeheartedly… and loving getting to tell this mash-up story.”
And the director is especially looking forward to audiences seeing Scott in the role of Sherlock Holmes. “He was literally the first person on the local audition day. And basically set the bar really high for everyone else,” says Steve. I ask Scott about his preparation to portray the iconic character.
“So I’ve been a big fan of Sherlock Holmes for a long time. Particularly the Granada television series from ‘84 to ‘95 that featured Jeremy Brett, as Sherlock Holmes,” says Scott. He goes on to mention how each generation has their preferred version of the famous fictional detective. Ever since seeing VSC’s production of Christmas Carol a couple years ago with his wife, he’s wanted to work with the company. And he’s excited that this show gives him the ability to bring his own interpretation of Sherlock Holmes “to life with this incredible company, and in this location that is like the Fenway Park of theatres.”
WANT TO GO?
A Sherlock Carol, December 4 – 29
A Merry Little Christmas Carol, December 8 – 23
Presented by Virginia Stage Company
Wells Theatre
Jerome L. Langston is a widely published arts and culture writer, who has written for Port Folio Weekly, The Virginian-Pilot, Style Weekly, and the Washington City Paper. Currently he covers theatre and music for Veer Magazine.
