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Next Meeting
December 14, 2024
Theatre Party
Ken Ludwig's Adaptation of
Death on the Nile
at Arena Stage
Archives
All times US prevailing Eastern
2024
- November 16 A Saturday with Sherlock Holmes The 45th annual edition of this staple of the Sherlockian calendar will once again grace the Wheeler Auditorium at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Bagels and coffee at 10:30, program 11:30 - 2:00. More details are here.
- November 22 - December 29 Death on the Nile The Red Circle's Ken Ludwig has adapted another Agatha Christie thriller for the stage. The world premiere of Ken's fresh take on Death on the Nile is slated for a holiday run at Arena Stage's Kreeger Theatre in Southwest DC. Watch this space for ticket information, and watch out for the snake!
- December 14 Death on the Nile A Red Circle theatre party for the 2:00 performance. See information in Inner Circle at left.
- December 8 - 22 Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs. Doyle A three-part series airing Sundays on PBS in which a popular British historian examines the love-hate relationship between Sherlock Holmes and the complex man who created him. See the detailed PBS press release here.
2025
- January 15 -- 18 Sherlock Holmes Birthday Weekend As always, January will feature the longest "weekend" on the Sherlockain calendar, with legions of the devoted descending on midtown Manhattan to celebrate. The annual dinner of the Baker Street Iregulars--the sole invitation-only event of the weekend--will be held on Friday, January 17. The BSI's list of events is here. Monica Schmidt has translated the list to a convenient grid here.
- April 11 -13 221B Con Another edition of the popular fan fest is slated for Atlanta. Information is here.
For a much more comprehensive list of Sherlockian meetings and events around the United States and beyond, see Ron Fish's
Sherlockian Calendar.
The Slavering Hound by Frederick Dorr Steele is an unpublished drawing for the 1939 Basil Rathbone Hound of the Baskervilles film. It was shown in the program for the film and featured in the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition
December 14 Theatre Party – Tickets Now Available The Red Circle will gather at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theatre on December 14 for the 2:00 pm performance of Ken Ludwig’s thrilling adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. You’ll want to be on board the cruise ship as Hercule Poirot becomes entangled in a web of Egyptian deceit and desire. This world premiere production is our own Ken Ludwig’s second Christie adaptation, and claims its place next to his three Sherlockian plays and his numerous award-winning comedies. We have secured a block of deeply discounted orchestra tickets for this performance, and we’ve arranged for a talk-back with Ken Ludwig (and possibly some cast members) after the show.
The discounted price per seat is $65 and orders will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. If we run out of tickets we’ll try to get another block, but unfortunately we can’t guarantee more seats will be available. To reserve your seats and get information on how to pay, email Carla Coupe. The deadline for payment is Monday, November 4. Your confirmation will include your seat number(s). Unless you hear otherwise, tickets will be held at the theater and can be picked up at Will Call. Arena Stage is located at 1101 6th Street in Southwest Washington, and the nearest Metro station is Waterfront on the Green Line. Uber or Lyft may be a good option for some.
We are waiting to find out whether the Arena Café will be open after the talk-back for more socializing, but in any event there are plenty of excellent restaurants along the newly-developed Southwest waterfront for a post-show dinner. So plan to join the Red Circle and playwright Ken Ludwig as Poirot springs into action to unmask a killer who could strike again at any moment!
What a Lovely Thing a Rose Is Tom Boswell is one of the best baseball writers we’ve ever had. For decades his regular column in The Washington Post was in the same league as the work of the legendary Sherlockian Red Smith. Boswell still files the occasional column, and his latest marks the passing of Pete Rose. He muses over the yin and yang between one of the greatest baseball players ever and the gambling habit that will forever keep him out of the Hall of Fame. It’s no surprise that Boswell concludes the column this way: “Arthur Conan Doyle once had his character Sherlock Holmes quote Flaubert: ‘The man is nothing. The work is everything.’ If Pete Rose is lucky, perhaps the future will choose to view him through that prism.” Indeed. 10/2/24 AR
Two New Sherlockian Pastiches The Red Circle’s own Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic and columnist for The Washington Post, and it’s always especially fun when he writes about one of his favorite subjects, Sherlock Holmes. Mike's August 31 essay examines two new entries in the world of Holmesian pastiches, Nicholas Meyer’s Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell, and John Lawrence’s The Affair at Mayerling Lodge. Fair warning: after you read Mike’s column you’ll want to read both books! See the column here. 9/2/24 AR
Gomorrah by any other names The television series Gomorrah, broadcast by Sky Italia in 2014 and 2016, is again available on Max, formerly known as HBO. The series is a fictionalized account of today’s crime syndicate in Naples. The title is a pun on the syndicate’s real name, the Camorra, which is well known to those who are aware that the manuscript of “The Red Circle” accurately identifies the organization as “Camorra.” However, when the story was published the name was changed to “Carbonari.” There are subtitles in English, of course; when the series aired in Italy it was subtitled in Italian, because the dialogue is in the Neapolitan dialect rather than in proper Italian. Fair warning: the series is not for the faint-hearted. 8/19/24 PEB
The Red Circle’s June 22 meeting featured Burt Wolder’s fine presentation, “Arthur Conan Doyle: Adventurous Life, Enduring Memories.” Read Carla Coupe’s Meeting Notes here.
"The Red Circle" under the magnifying glass A low bow to Alexander E. Braun, who is publishing detailed inquiries into the Canonical adventures on the Hounds of the Internet website. He's kindly made his fine paper on our namesake story available to us, and you're welcome to read and/or download it here. It's an essential reference work. 8/4/24 AR
Holmes manuscript brings record price at auction June 26 saw five Sherlockian lots go under the hammer at Sotheby’s. The star of the show was the manuscript of the second Holmes novel, The Sign of Four, which sold for $960,000, making it the most valuable Sherlockian item ever sold at auction. Next up was the breathtaking original Sidney Paget illustration called “The Death of Sherlock Holmes,” which was an accurate title for the work when it was created. It shows Holmes and Moriarty grappling on the path above the Falls of Reichenbach just before the tumble into the abyss. Perhaps the most well known of Paget’s Sherlockian illustrations, it sold for $384,000, about 10% above the top end of the pre-auction estimate. Two of the other items brought good prices, and bidding on one didn’t reach the reserve. Detailed information about the auction is in Peter Blau's Scuttlebutt here. 7/8/24 AR STOP PRESS We now learn, and it comes as no surprise, that the purchaser of both The Sign of the Four Manuscript and the Paget "Death of Sherlock Holmes" is one of the foremost collectors of Sherlockiana in the world, friend of The Red Circle and of all Sherlockians, Glen Miranker. It is gratifying to know that these items are now part of Glen's breathtaking holdings, where they will no doubt claim considerable pride of place. Congratulations Glen! When Glen visited the Red Circle in March of 2023, he talked to us about "Why Glen Miranker Collects." If you weren't at that meeting, or even if you were, this would be a great time to look at the video of his talk. You can watch it here. 7/28/24 AR
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