Brighton Fringe 2026

Sherlock Holmes vs Arsène Lupin: A Drag Crime Caper

Department of Ulterior Motives

Genre: Comedy, Costume, Farce, Theatre

Venue: Ironworks Studios. 30 Cheapside Brighton BN1 4GD

Festival: Brighton Fringe

Low Down

Review

Crimes mostly against the French accent, actually; as the Department of Ulterior Motives (D.U.M) pitted Arsène Lupin, French gentleman thief and master of disguise, against Sherlock Holmes, England’s most famous consulting detective.

Gallic perfidy met the stiffest of British upper lips, as Samuel Masters’ production took Libertés with the books’ subjects, Ègalité with the gender reversed casting, and Fraternité (and a lot more) in the relationship of Holmes and Dr Watson.

I’d last seen Maria Evans as ‘Tuesday’ in D.U.M.’s production of ‘The Man who was Thursday’ in last year’s Brighton Fringe. Here, she dominated the stage as Holmes – trademark pipe, deerstalker and a voluminous loden check cape – the great detective’s huge intelligence matched by an equally enormous ego.

And a difficult relationship with Watson. Esther Dracott was ‘Thursday’, the central character in last year’s show, but here as Doctor John Watson she was constantly trying to escape Holmes’ dominance and get her own achievements recognised. In a tight jacket and bowler hat she looked rather like the subject of a Magritte painting, but in fact the interactions between the two of them made me think of Batman and Robin (who we knew as fearless crime-fighters when we were young, only to realise, as we grew up, that it was a gay relationship).

That’s the British pair, but what’s happening on the other side of the Channel?  Chully Mullock as Arsène Lupin the master criminal (loud, impudent and fearless; all in black, with a top hat) had their nemesis in the form of Inspector Ganimard, the hapless policeman trying in vain to bring Lupin to justice. Emma Howarth played Ganimard in a fawn trenchcoat and a thin moustache, always several moves behind her enemy, and never letting on that her name was only two letters away from Gallimard – the French publisher of the Arsène Lupin stories. Clever.

So far, nobody in this farce is their correct gender, and that was certainly the case with Alex Scarrott’s Mrs Hudson, the ‘lady what does’ for Holmes and Watson in their Baker Street rooms. Clad in a long red dress and with a fag constantly on the go, he used his enormous pink duster (distinctly phallic, in my opinion) to clean the place, and later wielded it at those of us in the front row.

There was also Michael Grant’s sinuously black-clad Irene Adler, whose dress and feathered hat were Formidable – the only woman ever to outwit Holmes. Turns out he was also Moriarty – just how many villains can one actor play?

Not complete gender reversal, though – Phaedra Danelli was Josephine, Lupin’s accomplice/lover, from whom he was constantly trying to escape, and Alex Louise played any number of characters – so many I lost count.  At several points we saw a scantily-clad Tiggie Ellison who brought out various bits of set, and later (I’ll get to that …) carried onto the stage the British Museum building – supported by a mass of balloons.

The show’s billed as ‘A Drag Crime Caper’, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin. Loads of cross-dressing, as I’ve mentioned, but also the script’s stuffed full of innuendo and double-entendres. “Ooh Err, Missus”.  It’s stiff with ’em (see what I mean?)

‘Caper’ takes us back to the 1960’s ‘Batman’ TV show, and there was a lot of the frenetic energy and campness of that programme in this show.  At one point two characters pull themselves up the vertical side of a building on a rope – actually, of course, along the flat stage, so we had to twist our viewpoint ninety degrees. The D.U.M. company know they can trust the audience to get the gags and references, and there were numerous times when they broke through the ‘Fourth Wall’ – either by talking about something outside the plot, or sometimes literally, with lines actually delivered from amongst the audience seats.

Huge enthusiasm and commitment from the entire cast – the action never let up for a moment as the story moved from Paris to London, and then on to an English country house – for a meeting of the criminal elite. ‘Trust The Audience’ seems to be the D.U.M. motto, and they often conjured a location out of interaction with just a simple box or chair. We never had a moment to get bored – loads of activity – fights and dance sequences choreographed by Ella Palmer followed one after another and kept the action moving over every inch of the Ironworks stage. Great music too. This show wasn’t done in whiteface, but it had the same sense of anarchy as a Commedia dell’arte production.

Lupin comes to London to defeat Sherlock Holmes, but also to carry out a dastardly scheme of his own. There’s so much confusion of identity that at one point there were three Dr Watsons on stage – one of which was a wax statue which – for some reason that we don’t need to go into here – had ended up in Holmes’ bed.

I promised I’d get to the balloons, and here’s why. Arsène Lupin’s criminal masterplan is to steal THE ENTIRE BRITISH MUSEUM, floating it out into the sky under a great mass of the things. He’s only stopped by Sherlock Holmes, who gets himself shot up to the building by a catapult, to confront Lupin and stop the heist. (The thing was enormous, but you’ll have to watch the show for yourselves to see how they built it). How’s THAT for British pluck, Eh? You wouldn’t find those French Johnnies coming up with a plan like this!

The Department of Ulterior Motives have taken Maurice Leblanc’s Lupin and pitted him against Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes in this completely new farce – but there are actually several Lupin stories where he meets the great English detective. So the play isn’t a travesty – though it dips a finger into layers of smut and innuendo that would make both authors blush.

There were gales of laughter from the Ironworks audience throughout, and a lot of people have been introduced to a character they might not have known before. A new experience, and a hugely entertaining evening. Isn’t that what Fringe should be about?

It’s elementary, my dear Watson . . .

Strat Mastoris

Published May 20, 2026 by Strat Mastoris