One of the world’s most famous mystery stories gets a stage treatment this month, courtesy of Milford’s Second Street Players.
“Baskerville” is a retelling of the famous Sherlock Holmes story “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” This version injects some humor into the tale while retaining Arthur Conan Doyle’s original intensity and suspense.
Doug James is directing the show for Second Street Players.
“A man named Ken Ludwig turned it into a play, being kind of faithful to the story, but at the same time making it a very broad comedy,” he says.
James says that while Ludwig’s stage version of the story adds some laughs to Conan Doyle’s bleak and suspenseful novel, he thinks the play will appeal to audiences.
“I think we found a nice balance between the moments that are genuinely scary and the moments that are genuinely intense and the moments that are funny and very broad comedy,” he says.
The play is known for its rapid scene and costume changes, at times jumping back centuries from the time of Holmes and Watson, and taking the audience from the bleak moors of Dartmoor to train stations, opera houses, and 221B Baker Street. Adding to the challenge is the casting, which calls for the actors to flex their versatility.
“One actor plays Sherlock Holmes, one actor plays Doctor Watson, and then two men and two women play 36 other parts,” James says.
He adds that the actors are enjoying the chance to portray so many roles.
“They have really relished the whole concept of, what are the things that I do to become this next character and what can I do to make it different from that other character?” he says.
Second Street Players present their performances of “Baskerville” the last two weekends in August.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
