There's Merriment on the Moors in 'Hound of Baskervilles'
LENOX, Mass. — When a critic sees a show, the next day they write a review that either lauds or excoriates the performance.But there are days when even the most persnickety pundit just wants to have fun. People are very much like that, too. After a tough day at work, or struggling with a home project, there comes a time to unwind and if you have been having moments like that lately, this is the show to see. Seeing "The Hound of the Baskervilles," you will literally laugh your cares away during the course of its performance.
It is so funny, so over the top, the only metaphor that seems to fit is when you shake up a can of carbonated soda and pop the top. Sparkling, fizzy and way over the top, this show comes at you like a freight train of laughs that carries everyone in its path along for a high-speed ride into brilliant dialogue, clever ad libs and some of the best physical comedy ever seen on a Berkshire stage. Best of all, it keeps a knowledgeable and agile mind active since the work is layered with literary, theatrical and everyday references. They come at you so fast and furious that all that laughing can literally take the breath away.
Opening night there were a lot of young people in the audience, and their clear enjoyment of every minute further prompted the three principal members of the cast, Jonathan Croy, Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles into misbehaving, adding unscripted lines, bits of business and audience interaction in an effort to crack each other up. They succeeded, egged on by an audience they seemed to encourage bad behavior on stage. In short, it is simply a wonderful, whacky and witty evening of theater. As it rushed along I thought it resembled the autobahn of comedy — there was simply no speed limit, no rules to enforce, just floor the accelerator and see how funny a show can be.By the time the curtain calls arrived, there wasn't a single worry or concern left in anyone who watched the performance. Everyone left elated, totally relaxed and feeling as wonderful as is possible these days. Nerves, naggies and stress were totally gone. No drug, no shrink, no new age nostrum can do what this show does.
This is not the first time Shakespeare & Company has undertaken this marvelously creative spoof written by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. No sir. It was presented in fall 2009, one of the first productions in the newly opened Bernstein Theatre. You can blame it on Tina Packer, too.
Packer saw the zany Canny and Nicholson adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story while it was in the West End (London's Broadway). She found it similar in some ways to the condensed "Compleat Works of Shakespeare," which Artistic Director Tony Simotes and actor Jonathan Croy did earlier at Shakespeare & Company. She clearly saw it as a natural fit for the company, though beyond that Packer insists that "I have absolutely nothing to do with this production."
Perhaps that is because this is one she has left for the "boys." It's led by the indomitable Simotes, who directed the first iteration back in 2009 and returned to re-direct "The Hound of the Baskervilles" for the Founder's Theatre stage. In between, this fearless and feisty guy battled a financial crisis for the company, and a health crisis for himself — throat cancer — both successfully.
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In his director's notes, Simotes notes that just three actors portray the entire landscape of characters that inhabit Lond's city streets, as well as the colorful moorland folk of the Grimpen Mire. Every bit as important as the three actors is this show's hard-working crew who make the lightning-fast costume and scenic changes possible. You can see them with the cast in the top photo above. They shared the curtain calls, and they certainly deserved to take their own well-earned bow with the actors. They are an interlocking artistic team of Navy Seals, and their mission was to be sure the complex undertaking went like clockwork. Their precision and attention to detail was essential to that mission. One misstep, or a two-second delay and the whole show could have come to a screeching halt.
The costumes were alternately tweedy authentic and crazy wonderful, as befits this show, and Govane Lohbauer must be applauded for their cleverness. More than at the Bernstein, the sound design was an essential part of the success of this show with its howling hounds, environmental cues and atmospheric sounds that seemed to come from everywhere. Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.
The complexity of designing lights for such a fast-moving show can only be partially appreciated by onlookers, but here they had Broadway level precision, and happened so smoothly that only when I took time out from the comedy to watch the various cues did I see how many presets must have been used. The credit goes to Stephen Ball. There are many other designers and technical people to credit, and their names are below, remember them well. This is the show that found them all at the top of their game.
Having already declared "Sylvia" at the Berkshire Theatre Group the best comedy of the season, I have to dip into my phrase bag for the perfect descriptive for this show. Suffice to say that the "Hound" is back, bigger, better and funnier than ever before; there's more merriment on the moor than ever before.
Be sure to bring the kids, especially teens, to this show. They may resist going to anything adults like, or with Shakespeare in its name, but in the end they will laugh and talk about it for months afterwards. If you do, please note that there are a few lines and actions that are double entendre, though that is nothing new in comedy, and certainly not unlike what is seen on television every day.
And it should be noted that the production was sponsored by George and Roberta Berry, and Dr. Gerald and Roberta Friedman. Thank you for this great gift to the Berkshire's cultural life.
Larry Murray is a contributor to iBerkshires.com and offers reviews and arts news from around the region at Berkshire On Stage.
