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Door County’s Peninsula Players’ Depict Sherlock Holmes – a Serial Publication Icon

From left to right are actors Ted Evans, James Leaming and Greg Vinkler.

The Peninsula Players Theatre’s current production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure continues through October 19. The play features the iconic figure, along with his beloved sidekick, as he uses his gifts of perception, stealth and wit against two vicious foes: certain death and impassioned love.

In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the reading public to Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes, first in the novel A Study in Scarlet and later in The Sign of the Four. However, Holmes’ literary immortality and Doyle’s fame were assured by the short stories published in The Strand Magazine. The first of 12 tales began in 1891 with A Scandal in Bohemia, ran until June of 1892 with The Final Problem, and were later published as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Doyle’s series were an immediate sensation. Serial magazines, such as The Strand, were a 19th century phenomenon. For the first time a publication was widely and cheaply available to the masses. Each new issue was highly anticipated by readers, as episodic television is highly anticipated by 21st century viewers. Not only were these stories published repeatedly for 36 years, but they were illustrated as well, burning the iconic images of Holmes and Watson into the minds of the populace.

Door County audiences can catch Holmes on stage in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, through October 19. The Players perform Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm with a matinee performance at 4 pm, Sunday, October 19. Ticket prices are $32.25 and $29. For more information or to reserve tickets, call 920.868.3287 or visit http://www.peninsulaplayers.com.