This overarching grayness continues throughout the play as its most notable quality. By the time Felix (Remo Airaldi), a party guest, tickles a dead body, the attempt at comedy seems odd due to the gray stillness of preceding scenes. Akin’s expression of dismay as the lead character, William, reads as overly gray and consequently ingenuine. When two characters announce their marriage, Kelby T. William’s mother, Martha (Sarah Sinclair) is intended as a funny character, but Sinclair’s interpretation of old age embraces grayness a bit too much, resulting in slow line delivery that loses its comedy. However, Lyric Stage does not reach this potential. “The Game’s Afoot” is not Ludwig’s best work, but it has potential to entertain due to its cleverness, wit, and humor. The play needs to move quickly, but Lyric Stage’s production drags. Directed by Fred Sullivan, Jr., Lyric Stage’s “The Game’s Afoot” fails to deliver its promise of a “laugh-out-loud” show, largely due to pacing difficulties.

Playwright Ken Ludwig’s typically farcical comedy and murder mystery thriller, “The Game’s Afoot: Holmes for the Holidays,” focuses on William Gillette, a character famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes as a stage actor, and the guests at his Christmas party. It features underemotive actors and overwhelming visual design, and it struggles with insufficient haste. The rest of the performance contrasts with the first scene, but not for the better.

The comedy-mystery play begins with overemotive actors and underwhelming set design, jumping from murder to romance and seemingly introducing an excessively hasty performance - until the characters reveal that the scene is a play-within-a-play, a deliberately ridiculous prologue to the show. First looks are often deceiving, as proven by “The Game’s Afoot” at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.

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