The Real McCoy one act play script

ONE ACT PLAYS

THE REAL MCCOY Holmes & Watson
A comedy mystery by Dave Buchanan

Plot Summary
While attending a wake for mild-mannered Martin McCoy, Henry and George discover that the deceased died in mysterious circumstances, and that his life had been threatened by his daughter, his business partner and his wife. In an extended fantasy sequence, Henry imagines how Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson might have investigated the case. Holmes duly and with great panache finds out who ‘murdered’ Martin!
ISBN 1 904930 55 7

CAST 4 MEN 2 WOMEN 1 BOY

Henry Coombes/Sherlock Holmes
George Watts/Dr Watson
The Vicar
Ellen Kenworthy, the daughter Sangster, the business partner
Mary,the widow
Wiggins, the urchin

SET
A sitting room

TIME - present day
DURATION - approx. 40 minutes

Script Sample - The Case of the Rose Tattoo

As the lights come up, George, as Doctor Watson, is in a spotlight DL reading from a journal

Music: Bach’s “Air On A G String” plays over this speech

George (reading) “The Case of the Rose Tattoo, this being an extract from the journals of John H Watson, M D. July 13th, Saturday. A thick fog was closing in as I entered number 221B Baker Street, Marylebone, the lodgings I shared with my friend and colleague Sherlock Holmes. As I ascended the stairs leading to the apartment I could hear the plaintive sounds of Holmes’s violin. I went in and as I approached he stopped playing and remarked, ‘I contend, Watson, that Bach’s Air On A G String is a truly celestial piece and would be played in heaven itself, if it were proven that such a place existed.’ Then he turned and I saw that noble face with its aquiline nose in profile, posing almost as The Thinker.”

We see Henry as Sherlock Holmes in a smoking jacket and with a meerschaum pipe, in another spotlight in profile DC. The lights come up gradually on the downstage area as he turns to face Watson. He has a cream cake in his hand

Holmes Would you care to sample one of Daisy Lockitt’s Devonshire cream cakes, Watson?
Watson (taking and sampling it) Mm, delicious. - aren’t you having one yourself?
Holmes No. Simply on the grounds that my canal is overladen.
Watson Canal?
Holmes Alimentary, my dear Watson! Did you enjoy your walk across the Park and past the Post Office?
Watson Once again, Holmes, you have baffled me. How could you possibly deduce that I took that route and not one of many others, or indeed took a cab?
Holmes As to the first, I merely observed that your clothes bore several shoots of galium aparine, known popularly as “Sticky Willy” and found in the Park in abundance at this time of year.
Watson And the second?
Holmes Your shoes bear traces of the reddish clay currently strewn outside the Post Office in road works. Now to important matters. I take it you received my note?
Watson About your present case? I did. The popular journals are full of it. The property tycoon knocked down by a double-decker at Victoria Bus Station. And there is a strong suspicion that he was pushed?
Holmes Read this.

from The Real McCoy

259 The Moorings, Dalgety Bay, Fife, KY11 9GX.
Tel: (01383) 825737 E-mail: enquiries@spotlightpublications.com