By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — Just the other day, I was explaining the term “spoiler” to my ESL students. If you wrote a who-done-it called “The Butler did it,” no one would read it because it’s the mental gymnastics it takes to untangle a web of intrigue that makes it worthwhile. Now at the Fleet Science Center, we can enter the world of Sherlock Holmes & the Clocktower Mystery.
With Victorian antiques graciously provided by Consignment Classics, we enter the clock tower where chalk outlines a body with footprints behind him. But this time, there are no “elementary, my dear Watson…” explanations from the pipe-puffing detective. Holmes himself was the victim of this dastardly crime. So, by compiling clues and a list of suspects, we must help Dr. Watson crack the case.
Among the suspects is an escapologist, a creepy clairvoyant with a collection of poisons, and a mysterious woman with curiously large feet. Cui bono? Who benefits? A rule that police have always used is that whoever benefits from a crime probably did it.
The exhibit is divided into eight “chapters.” At each chapter are voice-overs of each interview with the transcripts printed out. At the eighth and final chapter, we are led into a cozy drawing room where a docent in a deerstalker cap divulges the twist-ending … and swears us to secrecy.
From the Croyden Clocktower, we go to “So Moved: The Art of Science in Motion” where ten local artists have created pieces that move in various media. As always, the kids are very busily engaged and the grown ups get to feel like kids again. So if you enjoy the keen observations of Sherlock Holmes or the Talmudic twists of Harry Kemelman’s Rabbi David Small, you’ll be enchanted by the Reuben H Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.
*
Tauber is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com