By John Brandenburg, For The OklahomanThere seemed to be as much Agatha Christie as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and more spoof than suspense, in a staging of “The Games Afoot, or Holmes for the Holidays” at Carpenter Square Theatre. The 2012 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning play by Ken Ludwig was given a rousing performance, bordering on the charmingly ridiculous, by an eight-member cast. Carl Lance was just histrionic enough as William Gillette, an actor who’s become rich and famous playing — and seems to think he is — Sherlock Holmes, especially when he’s shot in the arm after a New York performance. The illusion of actually being the detective gets even stronger when Gillette retires — to recuperate, and solve the case, if there is one — to his mansion on the Connecticut River in December 1936. There, the plot reaches a boil when many of his theatrical (and then some) friends from New York come to commiserate and party, not necessarily in that order, at the great house he shares with his mother. Barbara Atkinson played the mother with just the right naive, tentative quality, like someone who’s a little overwhelmed by the glittering guests, but may be willing to kill to protect her son and his lucrative career. Tiffany Kay Pearl got across the “dumb blonde,” like a fox, quality of the actress Aggie, who has inherited the great wealth of her husband, a good skier who ran into a tree at a ski resort on their honeymoon. Erick Rivera gave a nice “over-the-top” edge to Simon, Aggie’s new husband, who may have helped her kill husband No.Read more on NewsOK.com