It started as a dare.
In the summer of 2010, Arizona Theatre Company's artistic director, David Ira Goldstein, and playwright Jeffrey Hatcher went to see a Sherlock Holmes play together.
"During intermission, he was poking holes in the logic," recalled Goldstein.
"He said, 'I could write a better Holmes than this,' and I said, 'Prove it.' "
He did, said Goldstein.
ATC opens Hatcher's "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club" in previews Saturday.
"Jeffrey's plays are always intelligent and full of wonderful language," Goldstein said. ATC has commissioned two other plays by Hatcher, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"(2008) and last season's "Ten Chimneys."
"They are full of surprises, challenging, and reward close audience attention."
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Hatcher pulled his inspiration for his story from Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Suicide Club," a collection of three short stories.
He knows there are Holmes' aficionados out there, and he didn't want to stray from expectations the lovers of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective tales have.
"I tried to follow a format that a Holmes mystery would have," said Hatcher, speaking by phone from his Minneapolis home.
"But many (stage) versions can be staid and a bit lumbering - very 19th century. I wanted to make this one move almost like a movie."
And he wanted an unexpected Holmes story.
He kept the standard beginning - Holmes and his sidekick, Watson, together in discussion.
But Hatcher didn't bring in Holmes' archenemy, Professor Moriarty. In fact, there's little else that's familiar about the characters.
"Jeffrey felt that many of the Holmes plays were inverse mysteries - there was Moriarty, and Sherlock was chasing him down. He really wanted to write a mystery. He wants the audience to watch for the clues. You don't know 'whodunit' until you find out who done it. Then you go, 'Of course - it makes perfect sense.' "
Hatcher has a knack for writing in the language of the times, and "Suicide Club" is thick with Victorian phrasing. And more than a bit of wit.
It's a point of pride to Hatcher, who is never far from access to the Oxford English Dictionary.
"Occasionally I have to check with the OED to see if slang I want to use was in existence" at the time the play takes place, Hatcher said.
For instance, he added, "You want to see if Holmes would say 'thank you' instead of 'thanks.' They talked in a very formal manner" during the Victorian period, he said.
If he doesn't pay attention to those kind of details, it'll come back to bite him.
"There are Holmes scholars, and they'll look to see if it fits," Hatcher said.
"When you really love (something), you care in a dangerous, freaky way."
While the Stevenson tales offered some ideas, Hatcher turned to other sources, too.
One clue was courtesy of actor Raymond Burr, who played a wheelchair-bound detective in the TV show "Ironsides."
And a few were gleaned from never-used Columbo scripts - Hatcher used to be a writer for the television detective series.
The playwright, it seems, sees almost everything as potential for inclusion in a script.
"When something comes to mind," he said, "I'll put it in a big file called 'play ideas.' " Hatcher doesn't know the exact count, but he figures he's written more than 50 original plays and adaptations.
And he doesn't plan to slow down - as his quick acceptance of Goldstein's dare illustrates.
Or was it Goldstein's dare?
Said Hatcher: "I don't know who was daring whom."
If you go
"Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club"
• Presented by: Arizona Theatre Company.
• Playwright: Jeffrey Hatcher
• Director: David Ira Goldstein.
• When: Previews are 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Opening is 7:30 p.m. next Friday. Continues through Oct. 8.
• Where: Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.
• Tickets: $31-$56. The 7:30 p.m. Tuesday preview has a limited number of balcony seats available at a suggested donation of $10 each. They must be purchased in person starting at 10 a.m. the day of that show.
• Reservations, information: www.arizonatheatre.org or 622-2823.
• Running time: 141 minutes, including one intermission.
• Cast: Remi Sandri, Jeff Steitzer, Celeste Ciulla, Mark Anders;, Nicholas Bailey, James Cada, Maedell Dixon, David Green, Roberto Guajardo, Alexandra Tavares, Karl Hussey, Connor Kesslering and Chrissy Tolley.
Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.
