“Dr. Watson is a name that resonates with fans of detective fiction, and while [Anna] Fernandez is not that Dr. Watson, her character shares some uncanny similarities to him. When she is sent on an errand to 221B Baker Street (Boston, MA), the game is afoot. The play is a Sherlock Holmes-type murder mystery, set in Boston, 1946, and told in the style of film noir.”
Diane and I have seen several plays based on Sherlock Holmes so when local theater company, Alleyway Theater, advertised His Girl Watson, we immediately bought tickets. Kevin Cirone, the playwright, discussed how His Girl Watson came about in the Playbill: “First off, I’m a great fan of the Holmes canon–I make an effort to read The Complete Adventures…about once ever two years or so, and I’m always feasting on new adaptations.
I knew I wanted to write a new story based on Doyle’s beloved characters and was searching for the right angle. In my research, I discovered the existence of the Women’s Army Corps, the first U.S. instance of enlisted women, which was created in World War II. The ‘OG’ Watson was an army doctor, I thought coming out of the Corps into post-War Boston as a woman in the 1940s, with all the obstacles and experiences that might entail, would put a very interesting spin on the character, especially once she was engulfed by the world of Sherlock Holmes. This gave me a universe of choices of how to play with her story while at the same time giving me room to create a person who can resonate with audiences on multiple levels.”
A local theater critic, Anthony Chase, loved His Girl Watson and praised the actress who plays Josie Watson. “In that context, Fernandez’s Dr. Josie Watson resembles an archetypal femme fatale. Deploying a tough Boston accent, she embodies a woman who can spot a sap at twenty paces and strip him of his illusions before he’s finished lighting her cigarette — if she smoked, that is. While she may move like a hawk through the city’s shadows, unlike a true femme fatale our Watson is also a medical doctor in a battered urban hospital, tending both to shell‑shocked boys just back from the war and to the women they bruise, seeing the damage on both sides and refusing to look away. She’s a sharp‑witted, self‑possessed, street‑wise woman whose beauty is both armor and weapon. She understands exactly how men see her and plays into that gaze just enough to get what she wants, even as she knows the world will punish her for taking that power. Indeed, Dr. Watson is the conscience of this story.
I have always thought that Fernandez is a marvelous actor with an impressive range. Strikingly beautiful, she has a wide, Katharine Cornell‑esque face made for stage light. She has been brilliant as Morticia Addams, as Nell Gwynn, and as the lead in Crazy for You. I truly sat up and took notice when she played Sybil Chase in Noël Coward’s Private Lives, taking a character who previously seemed insipid and disposable and making her distinct and purposeful. It remains the finest performance of the role I ever expect to see.
Just as she is beginning to hit her stride as a leading lady in Buffalo, I report, with mixed feelings, that as soon as His Girl Watson: A Sherlock Noir closes, Miss Fernandez will be relocating to the New York City area to try her luck in that decidedly more competitive market. Our loss is New York’s gain. Anna Fernandez’s Dr. Watson is a knockout: fierce, funny, and unforgettable.”
So why is this play subtitled “A Sherlock Noir”? Playwright Kevin Cirone explains: “My dad had bookshelves a mile wide with detective novels and VHS tapes of the hard-boiled stories of the 30s and 40s–feature lengths and also action serials, which I would watch repeatedly.” Cirone grew up watching noir and decided to give His Girl Watson a dash of darkness amid all the detection and fun. Hopefully, His Girl Watson is just the beginning of a series of plays about Holmes and Watson. GRADE: B+