Berkshire Bright Focus...

. . .On Theatre, on the Berkshires and its expanded region in New York State, Vermont and Connecticut!

Home

The Author at Work

Contact Us

Three Continents

From the ship at sea 1

From the ship at sea 2

From the ship at sea 3

From the ship at sea, 4

From the ship at sea, 5

From the ship at sea , 6

From Rio!!

The Trip Home

NEW SHORT STORIES

Nothing There For You

Nothing There For You, 2

Nothing There For You, 3

Nothing There For You, 4

Chase of The Thrill, 1

Chase of the Thrill, 2

Chase of the Thrill, 3

Chase of The Thrill, 4

Of Course, part1

Of Course, part 2

Of Course, part 3

Of Course, concluded

In Memory: Of My Cruise 1

In Memory: Of My Cruise 2

In Memory: Of My Cruise 3

In Memory: Of My Cruise 4

Las Vegas, 1

Las Vegas, 2

Las Vegas, 3

Las Vegas, 4

Las Vegas, concluded

Mad Moment #1

Mad Moment #2

Mad Moment #3

Mad Moment #4

Margaret Never Knows, 1

Margaret Never Knows, 2

Margaret Never Knows, 3

Margaret Never Knows, 4

Margaret Never Knows, 5

Remote, part 1

Remote, part 2

Remote, part 3

Remote, concluded

POETRY

April's Fools

Easter Sunday

...simple answers

And when they come at me

Albany Civic Theater

Appropriate

Barrington Stage 2019

10x102019

BSC ARCHIVED REVIEWS

7th Annual 10 x 10

10x102017

10x10 Upstreet Five

10x10 Upstreet2015

10X10 Upstreet 2014

10X10 On North

10X10Upstreet

Absurd Person Singular

Alix Korey

All My Sons

American Son

An Enemy of the People

Art

Bashir Lazhar

The Best of Enemies

The Birds

BNelson's All-Male Revue

Breaking the Code

Brel in the Berkshires

Broadway Bounty Hunter

Butler

The Cake

Camping with Henry & Tom

Carousel

Celebrating...William Fin

Character Man

The Chinese Lady

The Chosen

Clybourne Park revisited

Company

The Crucible

Dancing Lessons

A Doll's House, Part 2

Dr. Ruth, All the Way

Engagements

Fall Springs

The Fantasticks

Fiddler on the Roof

Freud's Last Session

Fyvush Finkel

The Game

Gaslight

Georgie - BSC

Glass Menagerie

Going to St. Ives

The Golem of Havana

Guys and Dolls

His Girl Friday

I Am My Own Wife

Kimberly Akimbo

BSC's Kiss Me, Kate

KT Sullivan: Colored Lts.

Kunstler

A Little More Alive

Lord of the Flies

Lost in Yonkers

Love Letters

Lungs

Man of La Mancha

The Memory Show

Mormons, Mothers...etc.

Much Ado About Nothing

Muckrakers

My Name is Asher Lev

Mysteries of Harris Burdi

The North Pool

On the Town

The Other Place

peerless

The Pirates of Penzance

Presto Change-O

N. Coward's Private Lives

Ragtime

Romance in Hard Times

Royal Family of Broadway

Scott and Hem. . . .

See How They Run

See Rock City. . .

Shining City

Sleuth

Southern Comfort

Speech & Debate

A Streetcar Named Desire

Sweeney Todd

Taking Steps

This

This Wonderful Life

To Kill a Mockingbird

Tribes

Trumbo

21st...Spelling Bee

Typhoid Mary

Underneath the Lintel

Veils

Vincent

The Violet Hour

WellIntentioned White Ppl

The Whipping Man

BSC's West Side Story

Working on a Special Day

Zero Hour

Berkshire Fringe Festival

Berkshire Opera Company

Le Nozze di Figaro

La Boheme

Berkshire Opera Festival

Rigoletto

Ariadne auf Naxos

Madama Butterfly

Berkshire Theatre 2018

Naked

SMI Explains It All For Y

The Petrified Forest

Hair

Coming Back Like a Song

Church and State

BTF ARCHIVED REVIEWS

Anna Christie

BTG Arsenic and Old Lace

At Home at the Zoo

BTF Archive

Babes in Arms

Bells are Ringing

Benefactors

Birthday Boy

The Book Club Play

Brace Yourself

Broadway by the Year

Candida

Candide

The Caretaker

The Cat and The Canary

Cat on a BTG Roof

Cedars

Children of a Lesser God

BTG's A Chorus Line

A Christmas Carol

Christmas Carol 2010

A Class Act

Colonial Christmas Carol

Constellations

Deathtrap at BTG

A Delicate Balance

Design For Living

Dutch Masters

Edith

The Einstein Project

Eleanor: Her Secret Journ

Endgame

Extremities

Faith Healer

Fiorello

Frankie and Johnny in the

The Guardsman

Ghosts

A Hatful of Rain

The Homecoming

Homestead Crossing

In the Mood

K2

The Last Five Years

The Lion in Winter

A Little Night Music

Little Shop at Colonial

Lost Lake

A Lover's Tale

Eric Hill's Macbeth

A Man For All Seasons

Mary and Edith

Million Dollar Quartet

Moonchildren

The Mystery of Irma Vep

Neighbor/Smile

No Wake

Noel Coward in Two Keys

Oklahoma!

Pageant Play

Period of Adjustment

Poe

Prisoner of 2nd Avenue

Puppetmaster of Lodz

Re-View Puppetmaster

Red Remembers

Same Time, Next Year

Sick

The Stone Witch

Sylvia

Thoreau or, Return to Wal

A Thousand Clowns

The Who's Tommy

Waiting for Godot

Bridge Street Theatre

Casse Noisette

Driving Miss Daisy

there is a happiness. . .

Leni

F&J in the Claire De Lune

Bridge St. Thtr Archive

Dream Child

Frankenstein: etc.

Gamma Rays/Marigolds

Holiday Memories

How To Pray

...Kieron and Jade

Lucky Lindy

Redwood Curtain

Souvenir at Bridge St.

The Tavern

Broadway/Off-Broadway

Two Gay Evenings

Three Plays in NYC

Capital Rep

Red Maple

Miss Bennet: Xmas at Pemb

The Royale

Ring of Fire

Blithe Spirit

Paris Time

She Loves Me in Albany

Sex With Strangers

CapRep Mamma Mia!

Assisted Loving

Chester Theatre - 2018

Chester's The Aliens

Mary's Wedding

Disgraced

Bar Mitzvah Boy

Chester Theatre Archive

Almost, Maine

Animals Out of Paper

Chester's Amish Project

Annapurna

Arms On Fire

The Betrothed

Blackbird

blink

Body Awareness

The Dishwashers

Every Brilliant Thing

Folk

The Gospel. . .Discord

I and You

An Iliad

Madagascar

Memory House

The Mountaintop

My Jane

A Number

Oh God

Sister Play

Skeleton Crew

The Swan

Tilted House

Copake Theatre Company

Nine Months

I Do! I Do!

Sour Grapes

Talking Heads

Grace & Glorie

Dorset Theatre Fest 2018

Pride and Prejudice

Skeleton Crew-Dorset

Cry It Out

DORSET ARCHIVED REVIEWS

All in the Timing

American Buffalo

Barefoot in the Park

Baskerville

Boeing-Boeing by Camolett

Christie's The Mousetrap

Clybourne Park

Deathtrap

Dear Elizabeth

Dial "M" For Murder

Downstairs

Fallen Angels

Good People

The Hollow

I Hate Hamlet

Intimate Apparel

June Moon

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar

Legend of Georgia McBride

Marry Me a Little

Mauritius

Merton of the Movies

Murder on the Nile

Noises Off

Out of the City

Outside Mullingar

Red

St. Nicholas

S Holmes & the Jersey Lil

Superior Donuts

Table Manners

Tarnation Russell Colvin

The Novelist

The Pavilion

The Scene

The Way of The World

The Whore and Mr. Moore

A Year with Frog and Toad

Ghent Playhouse 2018/2019

Miracle on South Division

Elves and Shoemaker

The Father

Ghent Playhouse Archives

Ghent's "Almost, Maine"

Ali Baba...4 Tea Thieves

Ayckbourn at Ghent

Belles

Boeing-Boeing GPH

The Boys Next Door

Cabaret in Ghent

Clever Little Lies

Clue: The Musical

Complete Wm Shakespeare

The Countess

Dancing at Lughnasa

Coward's Fallen Angels

Fantasticks

Ghent's "Dial M...."

Grapes of Wrath

Greater Tuna

Hair Loom!

Hay Fever

The Heiress

Heroes in Ghent

House of Dwarfs

The Imaginary Invalid

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jerry's Girls

Lettice and Lovage

Enchanted April

The Little Mermaid. . .

Ghent "Little Shop"

Lost: The Grimm Years

Madwoman of Chaillot

Menagerie A Trois

Mothers and Sons

Mrs. Farnsworth

My Cousin Rachel

O.P.M. at Ghent

Once Upon a Mattress

Ghent: Our Town

Over the River, etc.

Pack of Lies

Picnic

Prisoner/2nd Avenue

Puss in Boots

Rabbit Hole in Ghent

Robin Hood: 50 Shades. .

6 Women...

Ghent's 39 Steps

True West Ghent

The Turn of the Scrooge

The 25th Annual Putnam...

Urinetown

The Weir

You're a Good Man, Charli

Goodspeed Musicals

Drowsy Chaperone CT

GoodspeedOliver!

The Will Rogers Follies

Rags

Thoroughly Modern Musical

Chasing Rainbows

Bye Bye Birdie/Goodspeed

Goodspeed's Anything Goes

Hartford Stage

A Lesson from Aloes

Hubbard Hall

The Velocity of Autumn

Mystery of Edwin Drood

menagerie

Book Club Play

HH - Crucible

Illiad

Tartuffe

Shakespeare's King Lear

Parellel Lives

Ondine

Hubbard Shirley Valentine

Shakespeare's Macbeth

The Drawer Boy

You Can't Take It With Yo

Literature

An Unlikely Hero

Antibes

B ob Dylan

Christmasville

A Lesser Saint

Upstreet, #1

Living Room Theatre

LRTs Three Sisters

MacHaydn Theater-2018

Annie at the Mac

Mac's Wedding Singer

Hunchback of Notre Dame

Machaydn Mamma Mia

Mac-Haydn Cabaret

Funny Girl

Damn Yankees 2018

MACHAYDN ARCHIVED REVIEWS

Mac-Haydn's Addams Family

The All Night Strut

All Shook Up

Annie

Anything Goes

McHs Anything Goes

The Baker's Wife

Beauty and the Beast

Best Little Whorehouse...

Brigadoon

Bye Bye Birdie

Carousel at the Mac

Chicago

Chicago (2016)

Chorus Line

Crazy For You

Damn Yankees

Dirty Rot. Scoundrels

Dreamcoat

Drowsy Chaperone in Chath

Fair Lady

Mac Fantasticks

Fiddler in Chatham

forty-second Street

Machaydn's The Full Monty

Guys and Dolls in Chatham

Gypsy

Hairspray

Hairspray 2015

Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! '17

High Society

Into the Woods

Joseph. . .Dreamcoat

Jekyll and Hyde

The King and I

Kiss Me, Kate

La Cage aux Folles

Legally Blonde

Les Miz

Love a Piano

Mac-Haydn's Grease

Mame

Meet Me in St. Lou

The Music Man

Nice Work If You Can Get

9 to 5

Nunsense

Oliver!

Phantom

The Producers

R.D. Housewives of C.C.

Rent in Chatham

Saturday Night Fever

The Secret Garden

Show Boat

Singin' In The Rain

Sister Act

Smokey Joe's Cafe

Sondheim Putting It Toget

The Sound of Music

South Pacific

Spamalot

State Fair

McH's Sweeney Todd

Sweet Charity

Swing!

Thoroughly Modern Millie

West Side Story

Xanadu

Yng Frankenstein

Music

10 mini trios

Journeys by Robert Baksa

Mary Verdi: Precious Love

Mahagonny

New Stage Theatre Company

Death and The Maiden

Blood Sky

Fahrenheit 451

The Maids

Northern Stage

Living Together

NYSTI

Romeo & Juliet

And Then There Were None

King Island Christmas

A Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Philadelphia Story

Yours, Anne

Orphan Train

Of Mice and Men

Twelve Angry Jurors

Anastasia

1776

Macbeth

Miracle On 34th Street

Arsenic and Old Lace

American Soup

Ordeal By Innocence

Reunion

Oldcastle Theatre 2018

LDJourney Into Night

Proof

The Fourth Wall

Oldcastle Whipping Man

. . .Israel Potter

OLDCASTLE ARCHIVED REVIEW

"Almost, Maine" in VT

Around the World in. . .

Beauty Queen of Leenane

Big River

Black Comedy

Broadway Bound

Cabaret

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The City of Conversation

A Comedy of Tenors in VT

ConsulTrampAmerica'sSweet

Doubt in Vermont

4000 Miles

Fox on the Fairway

The Grass is Greener

Last Days of Mickey & Jea

Oldcastle Lion-Winter

Mauritius at Oldcastle

Moonlight & Magnolias

My Fair Lady

Night and Her Stars

Northern Boulevard

One Two Three

Other People's Money

Rembrandt's Gift

The Ride Down Mount Morgn

S. Holmes-Knight's Gambit

Shipwrecked

A Song For My Father

Strange Disappearance of

Tallley's Folly

Third

39 Steps

Time Stands Still

Proctors Schenectady

A Bronx Tale

Young Dr. Jekyll

On Your Feet

King and I

The Humans

Proctors Les Miserables

The Bodyguard, the musica

Finding Neverland

Fun Home

The Color Purple

Wicked

Restaurants

Bezalel Gables

Blantyre

Brazillian

Burrito Bound

SPICE!

Sand Lake Center for Arts

Men On Boats

SLCA Crucible

Sand Lake Annie

In the Heat of the Night

Schenectady Civic Players

The School for Lies

Other Desert Cities

An Inspector Calls

Shakespeare & Co 2018

HIR

S&COMothers&Sons

Heisenberg

As You Like It18

Creditors

Love's Labors Lost

Macbeth2018

Morning After Grace

Shakespeare & Co - 2017

Carnage, God of

Perfect Pair of Wharton

Tempest in the Garden

S&Cos Intimate Apparel

"Dream" in the Dell

Cymbeline 2017

S&C4000miles

Shakespeare & Co - 2016

Sotto Voce

The Two Gentlemen/Verona

Cry "Havoc!"

S&Co's "Or,"

Twelfth Night in the Dell

The Merchant of Venice

The Emperor of the Moon

Ugly Lies the Bone

The Taming

Shakespeare & Co. - 2015

An Illiad at S&Co

Red Velvet

Mother of the Maid

The Unexpected Man

The Comedy of Errors

Henry V

The How and The Why

Shakespeare & Co. - 2014

Private Eyes

Vanya, Sonia, Etc.

Henry IV, Parts One &Two

6-Actor Romeo and Juliet

TCWOWSabridged

Julius Caesar in Lenox

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Servant of Two Master

Shakespeare's Will

Shakespeare & Co -2013

Private Lives

It's a Wonderful Life

Accomplice

Kaufman's Barber Shop

Beauty Queen/Leenane

Mother Courage...

Richard II

Love's Labour's Lost

Heroes

Master Class

Shakespeare&Co - 2012

The Liar

2012 Santaland

S&Co's The 39 Steps

Satchmo at the Waldorf

The Tempest

Parasite Drag

King Lear

Tale of Allergist's Wife

Cassandra Speaks

Shakespeare & Co-2011

The Learned Ladies

Cymbeline

Santaland

War of the Worlds

Red Hot Patriot

Broadway in the Berkshire

Baskervilles (Revisited)

Romeo and Juliet, 2011

The Hollow Crown

As You Like It

The Memory of Water

SHAKES & CO ARCHIVES

All's Well That Ends Well

Bad Dates

The Canterville Ghost

Cindy Bella

Real Inspector Hound

Dreamer Examines Pillow

Goatwoman of Corvis Count

Golda's Balcony

Hound of Baskervilles

Irma Vep, The Mystery of

Julius Caesar

The Ladies Man

Liaisons Dangereuses

Mengelberg and Mahler

Othello

Pinter's Mirror

Richard III

Romeo and Juliet

The Santaland Diaries

Sea Marks

Shirley Valentine

The Taster

Twelfth Night

White People

The Winter's Tale

Sharon Playhouse - 2018

Always. . .Patsy Cline

Barefoot in Sharon

Sharon Anything Goes

Sharon Playhouse Archive

Big River in Sharon

Far Away

Georgie

Gypsy in Sharon

TriArts' Les Miz

Little Shop of Horrors

Merrily We Roll Along

Minor Character

Sharon's Music Man

Quartet

Special Attractions

Terms of Endearment

The Laramie Project

Grant and Twain

The Vagina Monologues

The Fabulous Lipitones

The Last Flapper

Karaoke Killer

Capitol Steps 2017

Masked Man

capitol steps 2016

Die Fledermaus

Grinder's Stand

Babylon Revisited

John

Dracula's Grandmother

Mock the Vote-CSteps 2015

The Aliens

It Shoulda Been You

Cranwell's Capitol Steps

Kill Me Now

The Garden of Martyrs

Capitol Steps 2013

The Capitol Steps

Doubt

Four Dogs and a Bone

Zara Spook & Other Lures

Trial of F.D.R.

Autres Temp. . .

Real Desperate Housewives

Capitol Steps for 2011

Ludwig Live!

The Seagull

On The Verge

Seascape

Starcrossed

"Earnest" in Albany

Paris, 1890--Unlaced

BCC's A Christmas Carol

Sister's Christmas Catech

The Pajame Game

Her Name is Vincent

Property Known as Garland

12th Night

I Know I Came...Something

Doubt, a Parable

Voices' A Christmas Carol

Dickens A Christmas Carol

Marie Galante

Machinal

Capitol Steps

Late Nite Catechism

Rabbit Hole

Taming of The Shrew

Mystery of Irma Vep

I Love a Piano

The News in Revue

The Mikado

Saturday Night Liv

A Chorus Line

BCC - Christmas Carol

Morgan O-Yuki

Rent

Stageworks Hudson 2013/14

Tomorrow in the Battle

Stockholm

Looped

Play by Play Unchained

Stagework Hudson Archives

The Amish Project

The Divine Sister

Forbidden Broadway

Imagining Madoff

Or,

Play By Play Blue Moons

Play By Play Shadows

The Rivalry

Tennis in Nablus

Theater Barn 2018

The Decorator

TBSpelling Bee

TB She Loves Me

Pump Boys at the Barn

The Mousetrap 2018

The Nerd

THEATER BARN ARCHIVES

A. Christie's The Hollow

The Addams Family

Agatha Christie's. .None

Altar Boyz

The Andrews Brothers

Better Late

Black Coffee

Boeing-Boeing

The Cocktail Hour

A Comedy of Tenors

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Don't Dress for Dinner

Don't Talk to the Actors

The Drowsy Chaperone

Evita

Forever Plaid

Forever Plaid-2016

The Full Monty

Funny Thing Happened

God of Carnage

Godspell-2012

Grease

Great American Trailer...

Gutenberg! The Musical

Guys and Dolls TB

Half and Half

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadda

Housewives of Columbia

How the Other Half Loves

TBarn's I Love a Piano

I Love You....Now Change

It Had To Be You

John & Jen

Leading Ladies

Lies & Legends

The Little Dog Laughed

Lucky Me

Moonlight and Magnolias

Five Course Love

Moon Over Buffalo

The Mousetrap

Murder at Howard Johnson

A Murder is Announced

The Musical of Musicals

Nunsense at TB

Red, White and Tuna

Romance, Romance

Same Time, etc.

Fantasticks at the Barn

Spider's Web

Christie's Spider's Web

Stones In His Pockets

The 39 Steps

They're Playing Our Song

Towards Zero

The Unexpected Guest

Veronica's Room

Visiting Mr. Green

The Wedding Singer

You Should Be So Lucky

Young Frankenstein

Zanna Don't!

Town Players--Pittsfield

New and Used

Prodigal Cow

The Rocky Horror Show

Love, Loss & What I Wore

The Whale

Win/Lose/Draw

The Shape of Things

Five Women..Same Dress

Skin Deep

Stop Kiss

Life Is Short

Visual Arts

Walking the dog 2018

WTG Richard II

WALKING THE DOG: ARCHIVED

BecomingFrederickDouglass

Bon Appetit!

Cyrano

daemons

Eurydice

The Gospel of John

i take your hand in mine

Lost Frontier of America

Our Town

The Owl and the Pussycat

Painting Churches

The Umbilical Point

Under Milk Wood

Vritue, Desire, etc.

Walking the dog's HAMLET

Who Am I This Time?

WAM Theatre Company

Ann

The Last Wife

emelieredux

The Bakelite Masterpiece

Special

Holy Laughter

In Darfur

Emilie

The Old Mezzo

Attic, Pearls & 3 Fine Gi

Melancholy Play

Weston Playhouse -2018

Two Trains Running

Million $$ Quartet

Weston Doll's House 2

West Side Weston

Fun Home in Weston

Weston's Our Town

Weston Playhouse Archived

Weston's All My Sons

Analog and Vinyl

Baskervilles in Vermont

Buyer & Cellar

Weston's Chorus Line

Educating Rita

Ella

42nd Street

A Funny Thing...Forum

Fully Committed

Weston's Guys & Dolls

The Light in the Piazza

Les Miserables

Long Day's Journey Into N

Mamma Mia

Weston's La Mancha

Murder For Two

Music Man

Next to Normal

No Child. . .

Once

Weston's Other Place

Peter and the Starcatcher

Pregnancy Pact

Pump Boys and Dinettes

A Raisin in the Sun

Rent - Weston

Round & Round the Garden

Souvenir

Tenderly

25th Spelling Bee

Weston's Uncle Vanya

V&S&M&Spike

Williamstown Theatre 2018

Dangerous House

The Member of the Wedding

Seared

Lempicka

Artney Jackson

The Sound Inside

The Closet

WTF ARCHIVED REVIEWS

5x10

A Doll's House

A Month in the Country

Actually

After the Revolution

An American Daughter

American Hero

And No More Shall We Part

Animal Crackers

The Atheist

Beyond Therapy

The Blue Deep

Broke-Ology

Caroline in Jersey

The Chinese Room

Children

The Clean House

Cost of Living

David Storey's "Home"

The Elephant Man

Far From Heaven

Fifth of July

A Flea in Her Ear

Fool For Love

Funny Thing/Forum

Funny Thing II

A Great Wilderness

Hapgood

Importance of/Earnest

An Intervention

It's Jewdy's Show

Johnny Baseball

WTF's June Moon

Kinship

Knickerbocker

The Last Goodbye

Legacy

A Legendary Romance

Living On Love

The Model American

Moon for the Misbegotten

Moscow, Moscow, . . .

Off the Main Road

The Old Man&The Old Moon

One Slight Hitch

Paradise Blue

Pygmalion

Quartermaine's Terms

Romance Novels for Dummie

The Roommate

The Rose Tattoo

Samuel J. and K.

She Loves Me

She Stoops To Conquer

Six Degrees of Separation

Streetcar Named Desire

Ten Cents a Dance

Three Hotels

Three Sisters

The Torch-Bearers

True West

Unknown Soldier

The Visit

What is..Cause of Thunder

Where Storms are Born

WTF's Our Town

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. Directed by Tony Simotes.

Reviewed by J. Peter Bergman


"...stretched the metaphor far enough."


          I have argued with everyone for much too long, far too many years. In spite of almost every movie or play I’ve seen about Sherlock Holmes, and this is true of all of them, Dr. Watson is practically never given his due. He is neither stupid, foolish or inane. He is a smart man. He is an honest chronicler of Holmes exploits and adventures. He is a true companion. He is a brilliant doctor with a long history of medical triumphs under difficult circumstances and, through his association with the detective, he is an observant aide to Holmes’ criminal investigations. He is not the "foil."

          In "The Hound of the Baskervilles" Watson has always been placed at the center of the action. It is Holmes intention that the villains of the piece believe that Watson is the mastermind. Watson is actually the one who uncovers plot points and identifies probabilities - the role usually associated with Holmes.

          Now, for the first time, Watson is the star of his own show. A three-man script requiring lightning fast costume and character changes for two of its players, this new version of the Baskerville story gives center stage to Watson. It’s about time, too. And, in keeping with the situation - and the previous situations - the horrors of the tale are among the funniest moments of the 2009 season at Shakespeare and Company.   

          Under Tony Simotes’ inspired direction the farcical elements easily overtake the emotional moments. The characterizations stimulate the laughter and the performances cloud the memory with so many brilliant and hysterical realizations.

          Jonathan Croy, Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan Winkles are a perfect ensemble. I lost count on how many different roles are taken by McCabe and Winkles, but the official number seems to be 15. McCabe is Holmes, first and foremost, and also the beautiful Brazilian vamp, Cecile. Winkles plays Sir Henry Baskerville, a Canadian and also his own lawyer, a Scotsman with a bagged lamb and his distant cousin who may not be what he seems. Croy plays Watson, so integral to every scene that he can only take on the role of a gypsy guitar-fiddler in the extraordinarily sensual La Cumparsita dance sequence.

I know, Holmes purists; there is no La Cumparsita dance sequence. Well, there is, actually and it is one of the funniest bits in an otherwise hilarious two hour evening.

          Winkles has fast become one of the company’s finest physical comedians. As Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night and Flute in A Midsummer’s Night Dream he nearly stole the shows away from long-term players. In the current show he brings a fluidity and variation to his many characters that seems born out of a natural lack of humility. He is equally comfortable with his pants off or on. He contorts his face and body into character requirements without flinching. He is believably straight, gay, young, old, you-name-it. He cannot play an adonis, but that may be the only role for which he is not yet ready. And I’m not sure of that, actually.

          McCabe’s strong jawed, full-chinned Holmes is superb. He is not the classic Michael Hammond Holmes, but he brings a confidence to the role that allows even the silliest lines to seem exactly right. His household servants - husband and wife - are delicious and the funniest jokes about costume changes are his as he struggles back and forth between the two. As Cecile he manages to make obvious drag into serious romance and he handles fans better than Sally Rand (the stripper/fan dancer) would have done.

          Croy is a master of farce comedy and he plays his relatively straight role in this show with all of that finesse and experience behind him. The man is a laugh-riot all by himself as he shoots his pistol (sort of) to protect the beleaguered Sir Henry. He handles the verbal sparring in this rapid-fire comedy with aplomb. His almost magically common face lights up with handsome enthusiasm whenever his character feels pride in getting things right. He is the Zeppo that the Groucho and Harpo of Winkles and McCabe use to exploit their absurdities: the Marx Brothers of Shakespeare and Company.

          In this American premiere of the play, director Simotes and his production team have provided the threesome with everything they need to pull off the wilder aspects of the play. Nothing deters this trio, not missing costume pieces, nor falling props, from completing each moment perfectly. Jim Youngerman’s set pieces provide enough of an indication to keep the viewer on track as to place. Steve Ball’s lighting lets us see everything, including minor mistakes that really don’t matter. Govane Lohbauer’s costumes are sometimes just as funny as their occupants, sometimes simply grand indicators of class and station. Alexander Sovronsky has created a musical ambience that truly enhances the play.

          A major departure for this company in their autumn mystery/horror series, this fast-paced farce might confuse young children, but in its sell-out opening night, even an audience participation moment had its pride of place and made the fun that much funnier.

          As a proponent of the correctness of Dr. Watson’s place in the realm of superior people, I am proud of the authors, the company and Jonathan Croy for finally rescuing the character from the ridiculous and raising him to the sublime through the ridiculous. This is a delicious delicacy, an evening of theater that would give even a cynical, critical show-hater an appetite for more live performances.

◊09/27/09◊

Josh Aaron McCabe as Holmes, Jonathan Croy as Watson, Ryan Winkles as a canny Scotsman; photo: Kevin Sprague
Jonathan Croy as Dr. Watson; photo: Kevin Sprague
"La Cumparsita" : McCabe as Cecile and Winkles as Sir Henry; photo: Kevin Sprague

The Hound of the Baskervilles plays through November 8 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare and Company, located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox. MA. Tickets range from $16-$48. For schedule and information, or to book tickets, contact the box office at 413-637-3353 or go to their website at www.shakespeare.org.


Web Hosting powered by Network Solutions®