REVIEW: The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Watermill Theatre

When we first saw this show in the August 2020 sunshine it was our first live show after the first lockdown and its celebration of that fact with plenty of jokes about social distancing, face coverings and anti-bac sprays was the secret weapon in an energetic and lively production. It had the feel of an improvised melodramatic pantomime that might have been part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Its quick revival as the opening show in the 2021 summer season is a bold move but the feel was very different on a cold damp May evening with only half the audience tables filled. As live Theatre emerges from the third lockdown, nine months after its first outing the Covid jokes feel less fresh, and the spontaneity feels more laboured.

Abigail Pickard Price's adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle story of The Hound of the Baskervilles uses the original novel as a launchpad for a riotous three-handed dash around the Dorset, sorry Devon, moors in search of the Hound which as one character says would have Conan Doyle spinning in his grave. Pickard Price, as an associate director of the Watermill, has directed several shows over the years at the venue and is used to working within the limits of the small venue but on this occasion, she has worked with no set, props from stock, and apparently only four days of rehearsal. This version is staged on the front lawn and the Watermill itself provides an attractive backdrop to the production.

REVIEW: The Hound of the Baskervilles at The Watermill Theatre

It was, as always, a delight to travel down the M4 to the wonderful Watermill Theatre near Newbury to see Abigail Pickard Price's post-Covid adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle story of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Of course, the experience was very different from my last theatre visit to see Quality Street at the historical theatre in Bury St Edmunds on March 12th. Part of the joy of the show is the celebration of being back watching live theatre, and the audience and the cast enjoy plenty of jokes about social distancing, face coverings and anti-bac sprays. This sets the tone of the show, a melodramatic Pantomime which uses the original novel as a launchpad for a riotous three-handed dash around the Dorset, sorry Devon, moors in search of the Hound which as one character says would have Conan Doyle spinning in his grave! 

Pickard Price, as an associate director of the Watermill, has directed several shows over the years at the venue and is used to working within the limits of the small venue but on this occasion she has worked with no set, props from stock, and apparently only four days of rehearsal. The limits of the production constraints show, a bit like an Edinburgh Fringe show but that is part of its charm. The outside setting with the audience seated at tables of four seats adds to the fun as the cast move amongst them and applaud themselves on and off stage as they run to and from the usual dressing rooms.

REVIEW: The Hound of the Baskervilles at Mill at Sonning

Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles is a familiar title from its multiple TV and film versions over the years but the detailed story from the original serialised book published in 1902 is less well known but has been less rarely adapted for the stage. Simon Williams and his son Tam have taken on the challenge of bringing all the detailed plot elements to the stage for this new play at the Mill at Sonning. It is an ambitious idea set as it is in multiple locations in London and Dartmoor with several interlinked plot lines involving an escaped convict, a mysterious Hound and two couples with guilty secrets. Although they effectively incorporate all the story elements into the play, the adaption is too literal from the book and the staging is clunky and laboured.

The set design by Michael Holt is one brown tone with a raised sloping platform upstage centre framed by two brown drapes which is mainly used to indicate Dartmoor landscape. The forestage becomes the location of interiors in London and Dartmoor with just a single piece of furniture or the area around those buildings. While the platform does successfully represent rocky outcrops on the moor in some scenes it does also involve various passages where characters climb up and over for no obvious reason. There is no real sense of location and the drab brown colour also mutes any lighting effects projected on to it.