East Lynne Theater Company Presents ‘Holmes and Carter Mysteries’

CAPE MAY – “Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday tomorrow. Do come! I am at my wit’s end. Don’t fail me,” was how the telegram read. It was sent to Sherlock Holmes from Violet Hunter, a governess employed at The Copper Beeches.
“Within the last couple of months, two of my clients have disappeared. Both inherited several million dollars a short time ago, and right after the inheritances, both disappeared,” said Harruthers, to Nick Carter, seeking the help of the New York detective.
Step back in time, Nov. 7 and Nov. 8 at 8:00 p.m., when the award winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company serves up two crime stories with two different detectives, performed by the same cast-of-six, back-to-back in “Holmes and Carter Mysteries.” Presented in the style of a radio broadcast, complete with live sound effects and commercials, the mysteries are “Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Copper Beeches” and “Nick Carter and the Strange Dr. Devolo.”
While Sherlock Holmes was solving crimes in England, Nick Carter was busy in Manhattan. Carter first appeared as the hero in a serialized novel, “The Old Detective’s Pupil,” in “The New York Weekly” in 1886 – a year before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes’ first caper, “A Study in Scarlet.” In 1930, the Sherlock Holmes radio series began with “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and in 1943, the Nick Carter series was launched with “The Strange Dr. Devolo.” While “Copper Beeches” is not the original script by Edith Meiser (this one is adapted by Gayle Stahlhuth), “The Strange Dr. Devolo” IS the original script, used with permission by Conde Nast.
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Numerous Nick Carter novels were written by a variety of people through 1990, with Nick changing with the times. In 1964, the series changed from “Nick Carter: Master Detective” to “Nick Carter: Killmaster” to compete with James Bond and other international super spies.
The cast members taking on roles of those in Victorian England and in New York during World War II in the same night are Lee O’Connor, Fred Velde, Mark Edward Lang, Alison J. Murphy, Gayle Stahlhuth, and Robert LeMaire.
Lee O’Connor first portrayed Holmes in ELTC’s William Gillette’s “Sherlock Holmes” and has become one of the main storytellers for the company’s “Tales of the Victorians.” Fred, who was in ELTC’s “Anna Christie,” “Rain,” “Dulcy,” and “The Poe Mysteries,” has appeared in over fifty shows in NYC, including the off-Broadway revival of Mae West’s “Sex.”
Mark Edward Lang’s work with ELTC includes the recent world premiere of “Zorro!” as an actor, and “Anna Christie,” as a director. Other credits include performing in Off-Broadway’s “Welcome Home Marian Anderson” and in a Nelson Mandela event in Tanzania. Alison J. Murphy has also performed with ELTC over the years, including last season’s “The Late Christopher Bean,” and in a staged reading of the first Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Why Marry?” directed by Gayle Stahlhuth and produced by ELTC at the historic Players Club in NYC. Other New York credits include “Aurora Leigh,” “Mary of Shippensburg” and “The Wound of Love.”
Gayle Stahlhuth, who directed the past three ELTC mainstage productions, as well as this one, will be performing in the upcoming “Christmas in Wisconsin.” Robert LeMaire, who appeared in several ELTC productions including “The Dictator” and “The Ransom of Red Chief,” is portraying several roles and operating the sound effects.
Performances are at The First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, 500 Hughes St., where the company is in residence. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $15 for full-time students, and, as always, anyone age 12 and under is free. For information and reservations, call 609-884-5898 or go online to www.eastlynnetheater.org. “Holmes and Carter Mysteries” is part of Cape May’s “Sherlock Holmes’ Weekend.” For other Sherlock Holmes’ events, contact The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities at 609-884-5404 or online at www.capemaymac.org.