`Crucifer of Blood’ good winter escape> Sherlock Holmes mystery opened Frida

It’s no mystery why Penobscot Theatre put Paul Giovanni’s “The Crucifer of Blood,” which opened Friday, into its winter programming. This is a good time of year to whisk theatergoers away to India, where the play opens, and to 221-B Baker Street, the London flat of the master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. There’s also a cursed treasure, a blood oath, an opium den and some good one-liners, such as when one character sarcastically says to Holmes, “Why, I have heard that in the stables of the houses you visit, the very horses take on speculative postures.”

Yes, it does seem as if this play, which first appeared on Broadway in 1978, has all the elements of an ornate potboiler that will chase away the winter doldrums. Director Lisa Tromovitch has made sure of that with her careful and dogged organizational skills. The play has a reputation for being ambitious — with six scene changes, several murders that require blood packets to explode on demand, and a confounding list of props. In fact, the action can be so complicated that one regional theater in New York hired a choreographer to direct the play.

Giovanni, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his New York staging of the play, has freely cut and pasted the 2 1/2-hour piece from several of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, most notably “The Sign of Four.” One of more than 50 plays based on the beloved and world-famous supersleuth, “Crucifer” sets out to solve the mystery of a blood oath sworn by three military men 30 years after the prologue.

To reveal the plot would be unkind. But it also would be unkind not to issue a warning: For hardcore Holmes-Watson fans, Giovanni’s work may be disappointing. The script draws heavily on Doyle’s characters, and uses some lines verbatim, but simply doesn’t have the refinement and finesse of the real thing. Here’s where Tromovitch’s directorial hand could have been stronger.

Part of the problem is the casting. Joe Bennett as Holmes is a decent actor, but has none of the tall, lean, aquiline features we expect in Holmes. Doyle’s Watson is a man of more emotion, and, though not as eccentrically intelligent as Holmes, he is certainly adept and more fascinated than agog at Holmes’ out-of-the-way knowledge. Fred Liebfried simply doesn’t do the role justice.

Tamela C. Glenn overdoes the damsel-in-distress. The play, of course, calls for some longhaired acting because it is essentially a melodrama, but Glenn’s passionate style, which has served her well in past productions, isn’t right for this role of a mild-mannered, charming woman of sophisticated breeding.

Several of the other performances are comparatively laudable. Brent Askari, as the nervous Nelly, can be humorous and frantic. As Major Ross, Todd Greenquist makes the most of a campy character, and is graceful and patrician onstage. Eric Chase, as the wily Jonathan Small, has the difficult task of making his character — who wears an eye-patch, travels with a Pygmy, and walks with one leg and a crutch — belong to the cast even though he seems like something more fitting to a pirate story. But Chase is disciplined and thorough, and endears himself because of that.

Sandy Pasternak, as Inspector Lestrade, isn’t so convincing as a representative of Scotland Yard because his Brooklyn accent won’t quit. But Pasternak gives one of the more enjoyable performances of the evening simply because he is lively. It’s not really Lestrade a la Doyle, but it’s entertaining.

Geno Carr, a senior at Bangor High School, has some terrific bit parts — a Hindu watchman and an American sailor from Georgia. Not only is Carr obviously and authentically having fun creating his characters, but he delivers fun, too, and that counts for a lot in a play that at times, plods along. Carr doesn’t overdo it, and his enunciation is almost always clear. That can’t be said for everyone in the cast. Between the accents and idioms, it’s easy to get lost in a jumble of language.

Designer Jay Skriletz has chosen pared-down symbolic sets to depict the six different scenes in the play and has constructed a virtual puzzle of walls and windows. The wildest and most amusing scene is a foggy port on the Thames River, with the bow of a large sailing vessel and a bobbing dinghy. Doyle purists, however, will find Holmes’ sitting room uncharacteristically drab.

In director’s notes, Tromovitch makes much of the changes the theater staff made to accommodate the large set pieces of this production. And it is intriguing to watch the set transformations, particularly with Charles Clark’s and Tamela Glenn’s mysterious and rhythmic sound design (which is some of the best provided in recent years). The show might have better benefited, however, from stronger direction as well as solid casting, the latter of which is becoming a trademark difficulty for the theater. “The Crucifer of Blood,” by Paul Giovanni, will be performed 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 26. For tickets, call 942-3333.