Just when you think Rick Robinson — the managing director of Oregon Cabaret Theatre, the director of “Sherlock Holmes and the Study in Scarlet” and the person who adapted this story for the Cabaret stage — couldn’t pull off another hilarious, stupefyingly funny and engaging Sherlock Holmes production, he goes and does it again.

If there had been enough room between the aisles in this close-quartered venue, this reviewer believes audience members would have been rolling on the floor laughing. One is not sure if Watson and Holmes would have been amused, after all, they were deacons of decorum and deductive reasoning, but the audiences agree, this is one for the books.

The production is a captivating two hours that takes off like a startled cabbie horse, with Holmes and Watson driving this mystery forward until it arrives at its inevitable conclusion. As Holmes would say, “The game is afoot.”

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? A young woman named Lucy and her father are ambushed by a frontiersman in Utah who insists Lucy come with him. She resists and the pioneer shoots her father and kidnaps her. We discover Lucy is engaged to an honorable man named Jefferson Hope and upon the realization she cannot be with him, takes her own life. Jefferson Hope is determined to avenge Lucy’s death and track down the man responsible for her death, following him and his partner across continents, all the way to London, where the murders and mayhem continue with Holmes and Watson following clues in hot pursuit.

It is 1881 and Doctor John Watson has just returned to London hoping to find a place to live after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. He discovers Sherlock Holmes is looking for someone to share the rent of a flat at 221B Baker Street. This is where the improbably matched duo meet for the first time and form their famous partnership, stealing their way into the hearts of mystery buffs and writers for generations to come. Thank you, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Galen Schloming as Watson and Nick Ferrucci as Holmes form such a complementary pair. You couldn’t find two better actors to step into those parts. Schloming is an admiring Watson, not so much sparring with Holmes over clues, but rather impressed with the swiftness with which Holmes is able to decipher them. And the clues themselves appear for us in the cleverest ways. They are projected as backdrops to the story with a cinematic feel.

The methods Robinson and the production crew have devised to demonstrate Holmes’ deductive reasoning and Watson’s growing admiration, are nothing short of genius, yet so simple. A picture frame becomes a window on London life. As the pair gaze out a window at a procession of London passersby we come to see Holmes’ powers of observation, Holmes guesses people’s occupations as the actors rapidly shift from one character to another. It takes an understanding of theater, comedy and magic, an eye for early cinematic plot devices (such as slow motion and Kinetoscopes) and a bit of genius to make it all work. For instance, some squared off props transform into carriages for a harrowing chase. Robinson knows how to lead us to use our imaginations.

To deliver comedy on this scale requires a well-rehearsed company of actors and performers who operate with tremendous comedic timing and coordinated movements worthy of the performers in Cirque du Soleil. Two of the actors who make this happen are Tony Carter and Dan Olson as detectives. Olson is the stereotype of the supercilious British detective. Carter has us in stitches as he becomes two characters fighting with each other. Mia Mekjian plays a street informer and a number of other characters in rapid fire succession.

Director Robinson has struck a delicate balance here. He allows the comedy to take center stage, without interfering with Holmes’ determination to solve the mystery.

Hats off to scenic designer DeAnne Kennedy, costume designer Kayla Bush, lighting designer Chris Wood, projection designer Michael Stanfill, composer Lindsay Jones and sound designer, ien DeNio.

About the “Study in Scarlet,” Holmes says, “There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.” In this case, he might have added, “and see if the Marx Brothers are available.”