By Ruth Ross
He's been portrayed by Basil Rathbone wearing the classic deer-stalker hat, he's been played by Benjamin Cumberbatch as a computer nerd and he's appeared in a television show ("Elementary") as a modern London transplant helping the New York City police solve crimes. But I'll bet you've never seen a Sherlock Holmes like the one onstage at The Theater Project's latest production, Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles, a comedic romp adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson by the novel of the same name.
There, on a nearly bare stage, Mark Spina has directed 3 young male actors—all making their Theater Project débuts—to play 16 different characters in a madcap retelling of the ghostly tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that will set your head spinning and your sides aching from laughter.
The convoluted story line remains the same as the original novel. Set mostly on the Devon moors of England's West Country, The Hound of the Baskervilles tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. At the bidding of Dr. James Mortimer, Sherlock Holmes sends Watson to Dartmoor to protect Sir Charles's nephew and the only known heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, who has come from Canada to claim his inheritance. Out on the moors, an escaped convict named Selden has sought refuge, terrorizing the villagers. Sir Henry meets naturalist Jack Stapleton and falls in love with his sister Beryl; the hall's butler Barrymore and his spouse act suspiciously.
Holmes suddenly appears, having kept his location a secret so that Watson would not be tempted to contact him and he could appear on the scene at the critical moment. He discovers that Stapleton, Brazilian-born son of Sir Roger Baskerville (younger brother to Sir Charles Baskerville, the hound's latest victim), has come to kill Sir Henry and lay claim to the Baskerville fortune! When Stapleton sets the hound on Henry, Holmes and Watson shoot it. Beryl Stapleton reveals Stapleton's hiding place, the Great Grimpen Mire, but when the detectives look for him there, he's disappeared, presumably sucked into the mud's bottomless depths, leaving Sir Henry and Beryl to wed and enjoy the luxury of Baskerville Hall.
The mayhem unleashed onstage overflows the auditorium, as the actors leap down from the stage, cavort frantically around the various stage platforms and even enter from the Burgdorff Center's audience! They change costumes (designed by Barbara Canace) lickety-split (the dressers backstage are to be commended for their speed), grab props assembled by Madelyn Morrison Lichtman and, in general, raise the theater's roof.
That the three actors are young helps them perform the strenuous roles. Similar to the troupe's 2011 award-winning Penny Penniworth (also under Spina's helm), the motion is nonstop. Peter Kendall's Holmes (center) is an arrogant, smug, self-satisfied detective who takes umbrage when anyone questions his dominance of the craft. Scott Cagney's Watson (right) is a bit dim, but well meaning, sidekick who comes up with various solutions that Holmes knocks down as being off the mark. And Nick Wolf (left) does more than yeoman's duty playing Sir Henry, a young man who frequently finds himself sans pants and in fear for his life. The list of characters also played by these three actors would be too long to list; suffice it to say that they run the gamut from male and female to British and Canadian, young and old, guilty and innocent. It is exhausting just to watch them—think of what it must be like to play them!
Greg Scalera's sound design is appropriately eerie and ominous, and Thomas DiGirolomo's lighting design is moody and atmospheric. Rick Delaney is to be commended on his choreography; no one dances, but no actor trips over another as they maneuver around the stage.
If you are a Sherlock Holmes purist, this version of Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles might not be for you. But my companion, a member of the Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars society, found it to be a delightful hoot. So if you like your Holmes with a dash of vinegar and spice, get on over to the Burgdorff Center in Maplewood to see this wacky production. But be prepared to laugh your head off.
Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles will be performed at the Burgdorff Center, 10 Durand Road (just off Maplewood Avenue), Maplewood, through October 13. For performance information and tickets, call the box office at 973.763.4029 or visit online at www.thetheaterproject.org.
