Classic Sherlock Holmes lives at Huntington Playhouse
By Art Thomas
happenings
Published Oct. 26, 2005

If you’re like me, you’ll vaguely remember the plot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles” as you watch it unfold at Huntington Playhouse. We all read it somewhere in school, but it is intricate enough that we probably forgot lots of the details.

The story remains a good example of this type of detective thriller. It is set on the moors in the West Country of England. In fact, the moor is a central image in this story. Just about everyone in the cast of 10 utter things like “the moor doesn’t like strangers.”

There’s been a murder at Baskerville Hall, and the new heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, walks into a creepy collection of characters. Start with Kathy Stapleton, who wants to marry Henry. She has a brother who is crazier than most, creeping around outside in the foul damp meadows chasing butterflies.

Fran Norris, Gerry Wiess and Ruth Havasi play the servants at Baskerville Manor in Huntington Playouse's production of "Hound of the Baskervilles," which opens Oct. 20. (Photo credit: Tom Meyrose)

The servants are Mr. and Mrs. Barrymore, who are cold, distant, and vaguely sinister and threatening. Helping out is Perkins, a woman of limited intellectual abilities. Helpful Dr. Watson is in town, but the town is separated from Baskerville Hall by the foreboding moor and impenetrable fog most nights, and some days as well. When threats are made on Sir Henry’s life, Watson’s better half, Sherlock Holmes, is brought in from London to put things in order.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was sincerely interested in supernatural phenomenon. In fact he had violent arguments with his friend Harry Houdini, who refused to believe in spiritualists and in the possibility of contacting the dead by the living. However, I don’t think that the supernatural played a significant role in any of Doyle’s stories.

In “Hound of the Baskervilles” there are sightings of a monstrous dog, huge and dripping tongues of blue white fire. In the spirit of true detective work, this too is unraveled with a physical explanation.

Directed by John Hnat, “Hound of the Baskervilles” had a slower than leisurely pace on opening night, and what may have been meant to be tense seemed more slow.

The script is adapted by Tim Kelly, who is a prolific playwright. He is never bad, but never above average either. So, too, with this “Hound.”

Dale Hruska is a direct and probing Sherlock Holmes, although he has a smaller role in this story than many others. Don Wozniak is affable enough as Dr. Watson, and Matthew Solarz has the widest range of emotions to use as the befuddled and in-love Sir Henry Baskerville.

Fran Norris and Gerry Weiss are matched well as the servants who may have something to hide, and Ruth Ann Havasi is surprising and effective as the maid Perkins.

Marthan M. Brown gets to be at her eccentric best at Lady Agatha, and Jack Stapleton is the even more eccentric Jack Stapleton. Completing the cast are Linda Kindsvatter as Laura Lyons and Bernadette Mahar as Kathy Stapleton. They all are diverting and become a cast of characters who are equally suspicious in the multiple evil goings on.

A nice set designed by Tom Meyrose and Dale Hruska’s lights and sound make for a creepy atmosphere in this late autumn mystery play. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” runs through Nov. 6.