'Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery' is clever but needs work

Best known for producing some excellent musicals in recent years, Dramatic Productions have ventured out to produce their first straight play.

In selecting Ken Ludwig's comedy Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, and inviting prominent Canberra actor Rob De Fries to direct, Dramatic Productions seemed set to present a popular play by a Tony Award-winning playwright that was certain to appeal to a wide audience.

And appeal it did to the woman who passed me at the end of the night with: "Wasn't that good. So clever."

It is certainly clever. Ludwig's innate sense of theatre combines the classic Arthur Conan Doyle mystery with elements of sheer farce.

Sherlock Holmes (Brian Kavanagh) and Dr John Watson (Adam Salter) are the only characters played by the two actors, while the other two men (Nick Steain and Michael Cooper) and one woman (Teresa Wojcik) play a multiplicity of characters who feature in Doyle's 1902 mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Inspired by the modern adaptation of John Buchan's spy thriller The 39 Steps, in which one actor plays Richard Hannay and a host of other characters are played by three other actors in a fast-moving, deftly timed farcical comedy, Ludwig adopts a similar convention while remaining faithful to Conan Doyle's original story.

In this respect Dramatic Productions succeeds in evoking the book's narrative and mystery, including an opening film sequence of Sir Charles Baskerville's terrible fate.

What was less successful on opening night was the merger of the classic story with the absurd elements of farce.

Cueing and timing, so crucial to the precision and comedy of the piece, seemed out of kilter, resulting in hesitant entrances and awkward stage business.

Andrew Kay's timber-framed outline of Baskerville Hall includes a small performance area which also doubles as Holmes's Baker Street rooms.

Unfortunately, it is set far back behind a large expanse of floor which represents the moor. The actors appeared crowded in the confined space.

Lighting was sporadic and in some cases sound cues were slow. I hope this was simply an opening-night glitch. Kavanagh and Salter effectively captured a sense of period and character, while Steain stood out with his rapid changes, agile physical comedy and quirky characterisations.

Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery relies on energy, pace and absurdity on the one hand, and conventional style and period on the other. It is a balance that this production still needs to find.

Get along a little later in the run and I am sure that you will enjoy a much tighter, better-paced show.