Meet a French-Canadian Sherlock Holmes?
Langley thespian Ellie King and her team at the Royal Canadian Theatre Company are taking their fall showing of the Hounds of the Baskerville on the road this fall.
It started with a few back-to-back shows at Surrey Arts Centre last week, and will be travelling between Vancouver, New Westminster, Maple Ridge, and Port Coquitlam between now and mid-November.
This Baskerville production, adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson from the Conan Doyle original, was a huge West End of London hit exactly 10 years ago, King said.
She calls it “hilarious” and suggests maybe it is “the great detective has never been funnier, as Conan Doyle meets Monty Python.”
Sir Charles Baskerville has just died of a heart attack to, well, his heart. The only heir to the fortune – Sir Henry Baskerville, a Canadian – has arrived in London but he is in mortal danger.
A great, black beast in the shape of a monstrous dog has been seen on dark, desolate Dartmoor and, according to the curse laid on the family many years ago, it will kill any member of the Baskerville family it happens upon. Enter Holmes and Watson who offer to try to save Sir Henry and solve the mystery.
Dr. Watson meets many interesting – and odd – characters during the course of his investigations, including the butler and his wife, the beautiful Cecile, her ominous brother Stapleton, and a strange local hermit. Or is he? And where is Holmes?
“Three ridiculously talented and very funny actors plus one perambulating fireplace play all the characters in this fast-paced and uproariously comic version of the famous detective’s most challenging – and scary – case,” King said.
Starring Michael Charrois As Holmes, Jonathan Mason as Sir Henry, Steven Weller as Watson, and the fireplace as itself, the show is directed by King and stage managed by Stephanie Bruce.
“Families with older children will thoroughly enjoy this show, and the nature of the piece and its source material make it highly recommended for high school students of drama and of English literature,” King said, noting there is a high school study pack available on the RCTC website.
RCTC is the only company in Western Canada licensed by the authors to perform this British hit version of the classic tale, and the only company based outside of Vancouver to tour to Surrey, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Port Coquitlam and Vancouver, where they share this entertaining and affordable live theatre with preview tickets beginning at just $8, King said.
After their first run of the performance at the Surrey Arts Centre last week, they’re at Metro Theatre in Vancouver until Oct. 15 (604-261-7191), then at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster Oct. 20 and 21 (604-521-5050), followed by The ACT Arts Centre in Maple Ridge on Oct. 27 and 28 (604-476-2787), and finally at the Terry Fox Theatre in Port Coquitlam from Nov. 1 to 11 (1-800-838-3006).
For more information, visit: rctheatreco.com.
