Alexander Platt stars as Sherlock in the Gloucester Stage Company’s staging of Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville.” Jason Grow photography
The Gloucester Stage Company’s outdoor season continues at the Windhover Performing Arts Center this month. American playwright Ken Ludwig’s humorous turn on a literary favorite, “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” with Alexander Platt as Holmes and William Gardiner as Watson, brings a comic touch to Windhover’s garden stage.
Ludwig has a gift for characterization, and “Baskerville” provides plenty of chances to meet his quirky, energetic personas. Holmes and Watson are the legendary stars of “Baskerville,” but the real juice for this production comes from the trio of actors realizing dozens of different roles: Anna Bortnick, Alex Jacobs and Julian Manjerico.
Ludwig takes Arthur Conan Doyle’s original crime novel—enormous hound, murdered heirs, strangeness on the moor—and populates it with a revolving cast of unforgettable oddballs. Holmes cogitates, Watson comments, and mysteries get solved—but the bracing energy of the three supporting players makes “Baskerville” feel like a lively update to the familiar premise.
With sure-footed direction from Jim O’Connor, “Baskerville” makes a simple set (designed by Janie E. Howland, props by Emme Shaw) variously into the famous Baker St. lodgings, the Baskerville manor, and the forbidding moors, with no changes except for some moving chairs and opening doors. Players enter and exit through the audience and the wings, and the intriguing physical action never relents. Sight-gags provide continual non-verbal amusement.
Accents are key to characterizations here, and in addition to the British norm, comic turns on Castilians, Texans, Germans, Poles and others pepper the dialogue infectiously. Costumes (Miranda Kau Giurleo) were appropriately Holmes-era. Changes of scene happened in real-time, without any break in the action. Likewise, there wasn’t a single interruption at all to the proceedings when the power went out briefly, toward the end of the first act.
Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes creations have produced thousands of spin-offs and re-workings, and it takes imagination to bring new life to the venerable crime-solver. Here, Ludwig invests in the persons that Holmes interviews and pursues to liven the legend. Cameos of taxi drivers, maids, henchmen, physicians and butterfly-chasing naturalists shift the audience’s focus from the quirky Holmes to his far quirkier clientele and suspects.
Actors were judiciously miked for performance, and the narrative and characterizations were furthered effectively by Dewey Dellay’s original music and sound design. Marcella Barbeau’s lighting shifted the set seamlessly from day to night, from drawing room to moor.
“Baskerville” makes for lots of fun—and not just for Sherlockians. Ludwig leaves Holmes and Watson to history, but transforms the rest of the cast into a Bruegelesque collection of enthusiastic goofs. Come for the famous detective, and stay for his remarkably wild cohort of stage-mates.
The Gloucester Stage Company presents Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery” through July 25 on the outdoor stage at Windhover Performing Arts Center, 257R Granite St., Rockport. Tickets ($15–$54) are available at gloucesterstage.com or by calling 978 281-4433.
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Leonore Overture and Opera News. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.