"Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery""

August 31, 2023 — For its final production of the 2023 summer season, its 93rd, the Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, New Hampshire, presented Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, a comic take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. The plot roughly follows the original, but in the hands of comedy master and multiple award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig, it becomes something completely different. So if Doyle's novel was too stiff, stuffy and British for you, you'll love Ludwig's re-telling with all its mock seriousness, slapstick and inspired silliness.

Ever since the first Baskerville was found brutally murdered in a gruesome manner and many of his heirs down through the years have met the same fate, legend has it the family is being "hounded" by a monster dog which leaves huge footprints at the crime scenes, and has been heard howling. The howls, resounding through the theater, are particularly spine-tingling. Sherlock Holmes (Bill Mootos) and Dr. Watson (Ryan Halsaver) believe this legend is rather absurd and set out to prove it, meeting a host of bizarre characters along the way, all played by just three actors.

Mootos' formal British manner as Holmes is appropriate for that character, but it allows him to be outshone by the rest of the cast, Gil Brady, Buddy Haardt and Rachel Alexa Norman. Brady and Norman are especially effective, each with at least half a dozen different characters with completely different look, speech and mannerisms. Haardt mainly plays an American from Texas in a Stetson hat and carrying a six-shooter, with all the typical Texas braggadocio.

Directed by Blair Hundertmark, this production owes much to its crew as well as the actors. The splendid 19th Century parlor, ingeniously equipped with moving pieces to quickly change to other settings by moving the pieces in and out, was conceived by scenic designer Richie Ouellette and prop designer Lily Bitner. Production stage manager Deirdre Benson and assistant Kate Hausler, in her first Barnstormers assignment, were also indispensable to this play's success. Dan Clawson's light design was put to good use, as well as Kimberly O'Loughlin's sound. And none of it would have worked without Chelsie Cartledge-Rose's costumes.