Those looking for mystery, romance, murder, evil, intrigue and heroes need not do any detective work of their own.

Instead, the Town & Gown Players will present “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure,” which combines two classic Sherlock Holmes stories.

“The play does its best to encapsulate everything iconographic about Sherlock Holmes,” said Steven Carroll, the play’s director and the business manager of the University theater department.

“It’s got mystery, romance, murder, political intrigue, evil – evil villains and intelligent detectives . It’s pretty much the old pulp hero iconography,” he said.

Leara Rhodes, the show’s publicist, offered a few more of the play’s selling points.

“There’s intrigue, there’s thievery, there’s running around, there’s hiding,” she said. “There’s all the things you could want from a mystery.”

The play takes place in late 19th century London – “your typical Victorian, Jack the Ripper period,” Carroll said.

It pits Sherlock Holmes against the villainous Professor Moriarty.

“It starts out with Holmes trying to enjoy retirement, but plagued with the idea that there’s one criminal out there, Moriarty,” Carroll said.

Patrick Najjar, a freshman from Stone Mountain, plays Professor Moriarty.

“Sherlock is sort of the older generation, and Moriarty is the new generation coming in and trying to take over,” Najjar said. “He’s very smart; he’s younger than Sherlock. He’s very ambitious and basically wants to control everything.”

Much of the play focuses on the conflict between Holmes and Moriarty.

“Sherlock Holmes has been trying to gather a case to put Moriarty on trial, and Moriarty has begun to threaten Sherlock’s life,” Najjar said.

“Sherlock has to choose between going into hiding to save his life or taking this one last case.”

Also returning in tonight’s play is Holmes’ ever-faithful companion, Dr. Watson, who narrates much of the play.

The script for this weekend’s show was written by Steven Dietz in 2006; however, it is based on the 1899 original by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette.

The play also will involve the audience in a mystery game beforehand, in which they solve puzzles before the show and during intermission for a chance to get a “buy one, get one free” deal on tickets.

As with all Town & Gown performances, the show is produced and performed by volunteers.

“Town & Gown’s been around quite a while. We’re a community theater, therefore everyone’s a volunteer,” Rhodes said. “Sometimes we have UGA students; sometimes we have townies. Whoever comes out.”

Najjar has worked with Town & Gown before, he said.

“I auditioned for a show with them last fall. The show was ‘Arcadia,’ and luckily I got a part in that,” he said. “This spring, I heard they were doing ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ so I thought I’d come out and audition again.”

He said he has enjoyed working on the play, and he thinks audiences will like it too.

“It’s been really fun. This is a really fun show,” he said. “It moves really quickly, and there’s a lot of action in it. It’s a really great cast, and we all work well together.”

Carroll also said the show would appeal to a wide audience.

“It’s a very family-friendly sort of show,” he said. “The romance is fairly benign; the villainy is comic book villainy. It’s a classic.”