Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted for every imaginable medium in more versions than you could shake a stick at. Many of these adaptations try to play the story ‘straight’, but the inherent melodrama and downright ludicrous course of the narrative makes it especially rich pickings for comedy treatment.
Stephen Canny and John Nicholson’s adaptation, presented here by Chester Little Theatre, was originally created for the renowned physical theatre company Peepolykus, and is one of the most successful humorous versions of the story to hit the stage. Canny himself, in a note accompanying the publication, suggests that the casting process might involve getting prospective actors to run 800m or so, to determine their fitness for the task.
If this production, directed by Lexy Fox-Hutchings, is anything to go by, this is probably sound advice. My own detective work tells me that some of the huge array of costumes, carefully fitted for size by Charlotte Offley and Lilian Chapman, were becoming decidedly loose at the waist by the time rehearsals were over, and the cast may have felt justified to cancel any gym memberships they might previously have had.
The three-strong cast certainly get quite a physical workout in bringing a plethora of characters to the stage, and it is also a tremendous exercise in stretching their acting abilities, as they leap rapidly from one role to another. The comedy is heavily reliant on highly polished timing, and Fox-Hutchings has done a sterling job of honing this to the sharpest edge.
Alex Wight enjoys the distinction of getting things underway in the disarmingly dramatic opening scene, which sets the back-story of Sir Hugo Baskerville being mauled to death by an unseen yet very audible beast, but the tone changes rapidly with the arrival of his co-stars Andy Fox-Hutchings and K. C. Finn, who demolish the remaining vestiges of the fourth wall to invite us into a conspiracy of theatrical conceit. Wight brings us not only the Baskervilles, but also Dr Mortimer, while Fox-Hutchings revels in Holmes, the Stapleteons and the Barrymores, with both creating a variety of other parts. Finn is spared quite the multiplicity of role changes, because his chief character of Watson requires a modicum of stability, given that he is the narrator, but even so is required to appear in other guises on occasion.
All three players throw themselves into the task with suitably gleeful abandon, and there is a splendid chemistry between them, enabling the sparks to fly and the gags, both verbal and physical, to land squarely on target. Enormous plaudits must also go to the unseen Steve Lincoln, who has both designed and operates the lighting and sound, which is no mean feat, given the extremely complicated script of cues and effects.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a rollicking crowd-pleaser with which to bring CLT’s 60th Anniversary season to a close, and has happily been met by packed houses. We wish them well for their next 60 years, and very much look forward to more of their imaginatively diverse programming in the coming season.
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
Alex Wight, K.C.Finn and Andy Fox-Hutchings in The Hound of the Baskervilles - © Stephen Cain Photography
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