Guildford's date with the great Sherlock Holmes

Venues include the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford from November 18-22; the MAST Studios, Southampton from January 29-31 and the Connaught Theatre, Worthing from February 4-6.

We are in 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 –

a crack that threatens to destabilise monarchy, government and Empire. And at its centre, controlling the flow of information and influence, a shadowy figure plans a final deadly move.

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…

For Mark, it’s a challenging role: “Most of what I need is in the text but with such an iconic character it's important to understand people's conceptions of him before putting my own ideas into it. But really most of it is in the script, how he develops and what are the other changes.

“But I think with Sherlock Holmes you've got to get across the obsession. His main characteristic is obsession for his work and for being the best and I think that makes him quite an attractive character – but obsession to the detriment of other things in his life, his relationships and his human connection. But with that obsession there is also an incredible intelligence which means that he is always a step ahead but you've also got his great admiration for Irene Adler, the woman who bested him.

“And then there is his restlessness. His restless mind, his restless energy. The play opens with him not having a case and he is in a deep funk. He interrogates Watson as to why there are no crimes around. As he says, London is full of fog, and robbers and murderers should be running around all over the place and hiding in the fog but nothing is happening but then just as he is about to launch into an impassioned bit of violin playing his brother comes along with a case.…”

The Hunt for Moriarty interweaves a selection of Sherlock Holmes short stories into a single narrative, offering both Holmes fans and those new to the canon a new spy adventure that remains true to Conan Doyle’s work. The short stories used in the play are The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Second Stain and The Final Problem.

The tour stretches months ahead: “I did a long tour before with Lord of the Flies about ten years ago and we did similar venues to the ones we're doing now so I'm familiar with the rhythm of touring and it's great to play in different spaces. We played Hornchurch which is pretty big and we felt quite distanced from the audience and then we were in Ipswich where we were much closer. In Hornchurch we felt like we were in a glass case, but in Ipswich we felt much nearer.”