Baskerville: Sherlock at the Cider Mill
When playwright William Gillette asked permission of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write a wedding scene for the great detective, he got a succinct telegram in response: “You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him.” It’s in that spirit that Endicott’s Cider Mill Playhouse brings us Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery - a spooky piece just in time for Halloween, that turns the myth of the great detective on its head in a distinctly comedic fashion, all while using only five actors to portray a cast of more than thirty characters.
The play, which premiered last year, is by the same author as the perennial favorite Lend Me a Tenor. Director Craig MacDonald says he was attracted to the piece by the farcical spirit it shared with its author’s other work, as well as by its distinctive comic perspective on the ubiquitous archetypical figure that Holmes cuts in our culture. “It’s both a gothic horror tale and a murder mystery, so it’s the Halloween show for us,” he explains. “And it’s comedy. It’s got a lot of eccentric characters in it. It’s making fun of Sherlock Holmes, particularly as a cultural icon of a kind of superhuman original superhero. He’s the original James Bond. He’s the original Superman. Knows everything, can do everything. So this is making fun of the fact that Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the most cryptic Sherlock Holmes pieces. The red herrings are bizarre, and the twists and turns are kind of silly if you look at them objectively.”
The Cider Mill Playhouse, an Endicott arts institution, has a long and popular tradition of presenting Sherlock Holmes plays (including Knight’s Gambit in the 2103-2014 season). And the character has become even more culturally pervasive in recent years, carrying popular US and UK television series. Baskerville not only gives the local audience a chance to catch a popular new version of the myth that has been produced in theaters around the country, but also to laugh at an element of the character we often take for granted: the fact that he seems to be motivated not by a desire to do good but rather to satisfy his personal curiosity about his clients’ cases. As MacDonald explains, “It makes fun of the fact that although Sherlock Holmes is this remarkable fictitious individual, he picks and chooses whom he decides to help. It’s like, ‘The case is interesting; therefore, I’ll help these people.’ It’s rather selective. You could almost say it’s a little elitist in its application of his resources.”
The play is an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, which was published in 1902. The story was a flashback to a time before Holmes’ death scene at the end of a previous adventure - Conan Doyle’s way of acceding to popular demand for the return of the fictional detective. It has since been rated as the most popular of all the Sherlock Holmes stories.
MacDonald’s resume includes acting in the Cider Mill’s spring production of Urinetown, as well as directing at the Kitchen Theater, the Hangar Theater, and the Chenango River Theater. This experience has allowed him to develop a well-honed theory of comedy - a theory that a play such as Ludwig’s farce allows him to put to good use.
As he explains, this understanding of how comedy works extends not just into his scene work, but also to his casting choices: “When I cast, the actors’ chemistry is very important to me. And the main thing is that they find each other funny. So I chose three of the actors I knew from different places, and who didn’t know each other. I said, ‘These three guys have got to be in a room together.’ And the result has been that we sometimes have not been able to get through scenes because they crack each other up. At one point we fell on the floor from laughing so hard. And that was an opportunity to remind them, ‘I’m glad you enjoy each other and you see the absurdity in what these characters are doing; however, remember that it’s about the audience laughing, not you!’ And the nickel dropped right away. They realized then that if they were finding it funny, the audience wouldn’t. We laugh because they’re in pain. Comedy at its basic level is all about saying, ‘Thank God it’s not me!’ ”
Baskerville features James Odom Taylor as Holmes, and Aundre Seals (another veteran of the Cider Mill’s Urinetown) as Watson. The other actors, Bret Jaspers, Daniel Mian, and recent MacDonald student, Rachel Towne, collaborate to change characterizations quickly and play all of the other dozens of characters who appear in the play - a style of theatre that has proven increasingly trendy in recent years.
MacDonald promises impressive production values, including, “fog and lights and masks and all kind of silly stuff,” plus a puppet from Scott Hitz, a veteran of the Children’s Television Workshop. The exact nature of the puppet; however, must remain, like the play, a mystery, for fear of revealing spoilers.
“We had a run through last night,” MacDonald says, “and I think we’re achieving what I set out to do: to tell a spooky story, which also has some laughs in it. It’s a good family evening. Nice clean fun. No bad language, no sexually inappropriate situations. But a classic farce.”
Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery plays October 27th-30th, November 3rd-6th, and November 10th-13th, at the Cider Mill Playhouse, 2 Nanticoke Avenue in Endicott. Tickets cost $26-$32 and can be obtained by calling (607) 748-7363, going to the theater, or visiting cidermillplayhouse.org.
