The Hound of the Baskervilles

Two actors, one small stage and lots of fun  

On Saturday night we went to see Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery

The Hound of the Baskervilles in Norther Rep's hilarious new production at  the Reading Room in the Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester. This is on until 16th September and is well worth a night out.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Two brave actors run the whole show, right from the arrival of the audience, where they are taking tickets and serving drinks, through the whole production, to seeing everyone out at the end of the evening. The actor playing Sherlock Holmes, even dashed out at the interval to buy more lager for the bar!

The stage set for The Hound of the Baskervilles

The stage is small, about 6ft x 5ft, apparently balanced on volumes of old books, with two walls covered in bookshelves, holding the occasional cartoon cardboard prop (such as a moustache or pipe). A cardboard boot hangs from the ceiling...

Cardboard boot!

There are seats for about 40 people plus a few stools were brought out for the late arrivals. Everyone is very close to the action, and there was plenty of action as we followed Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Jane Watson on their journey from the streets of London to the Devonshire Moors as they attempt to solve the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The two actors play all the roles, distinguishing them by accents and props (scarf, pipe, bow tie etc).  Things go wrong, by accident or design? but the whole event is an enjoyable farce which rushes through the plot at an incredible pace.  

One member of the audience was called Moriarty (really) and 'Sherlock' picked up on this introducing him to everyone.  

Unfortunately I didn't get the names of the actors but 'Dr Jane Watson' was a veteran of the play having performed it over the past 3 months, while 'Sherlock' had only done it a couple of times before and was using a book from his 'library' to help with the script.  He explained that the real Sherlock was out in Spain solving another mystery. They played this fact to its advantage and a number of laughs followed as a result.

After the break, where we refuelled on wine / lager / water, the actors returned to the stage and did a 'Previously in The Hound of the Baskervilles....' recap!

Two brave actors, recap the first act

The running time of the play is an hour and a half and we had an interval of about twenty minutes.  The whole evening was a delight, plenty of laughs and an impressive cast.  It's only on until 16th September in Manchester so get your tickets soon if you want to enjoy the show.