THEATRE + COMEDY

The Grand 1894 Opera House presents Roger Llewellyn: Sherlock Holmes – The Death and Life, Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 8pm.

In this wryly humorous tale of murder, mystery, and the occult, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — creator of Sherlock Holmes — invents the evil mastermind Moriarty to dispose of his “intolerably arrogant” detective.

But Doyle's dangerous strategy, combined with his passion for raising the spirits of the dead, has rather more surreal and dramatic consequences than he bargains for! Against the wishes of the author, consequences of a light-hearted and intriguing investigation make fictional characters take on lives and ambitions of their own.

After his international success in Sherlock Holmes...the last act! Roger Llewellyn returns in this spine tingling new play, written by David Stuart Davies, and directed by Gareth Armstrong with original music by Simon Slater.

Sherlock Holmes...the Death and Life is produced and presented by makin projects in association with Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.

Roger Llewellyn - Roger trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he won The Forbes Robertson Shakespeare Award. He has worked in most of the major English Regional Theatres including: Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Scarborough, and Manchester. Roger was with The Royal Shakespeare Company for two seasons, (Stratford, The Barbican & The Almeida); playing Lodovico in Othello; Fabre D'Eglantine in Pam Gems' The Danton Affair; and a leading role in Donald Sumpter's improvised: The King & The Corpse.

In The West End, Roger has appeared in two musicals, as the Archbishop of Canterbury in Tim Rice's Blondel at The Old Vic and The Aldwych; and Inspector Lestrade in Leslie Bricusse's Sherlock Holmes The Musical at The Cambridge. He has also been in four productions at The Lyric Hammersmith, and TheOrange Tree, Richmond.

His many roles on British television began with King James II in Lorna Doone;and has continued with figures of authority ever since. For The Greater Good,directed by Danny Boyle, saw Rogers first Prison Governor; which led to hisbeing cast in Louis Malle's final film, Damage, as Palmer, Juliette's Binoche'sboss at Sothebys. He played another Prison Governor in Inspector Morse. In
Crown Court he was a Police Sergeant; but was promoted to Chief Constable in Telltale.

He has played prison chaplains in Flesh & Blood with Thora Hird, and in All For Love with Maggie Smith; and a more serious cleric, Canon Collins, in thecontroversial drama, Bomber Harris with the late John Thaw. He was a senior executive of the RNLI in several episodes of Lifeboat; Bank Managers in Berlekey Square and Airline; a museum curator in El Cid; and Headmasters in Kavanagh QC, The Bill, and several episodes of Family Affairs, and many more, too numerous to mention.

His Holmes in The Hound of The Baskervilles, in Stoke, was seen & reviewed by David Stuart Davies, a renowned writer & Conan Doyle expert. Out of this meeting came the idea for a solo show and this has led to Sherlock Holmes& the Death and Life.

www.rogerllewellyn.co.uk,  www.shawentertainment.com.