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Minstrel Players present: 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'
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November 12, 2009 | 11:00 AM
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's admittedly most famous Sherlock Holmes mystery arrived on Saturday, Nov. 7 on the boards of the Minstrel Players venue at Houghton Hall, Trinity Episcopal Church, 130 Main St., Northport.
A dead landowner, an allegedly supernatural creature that haunts the moors, an ancient curse and finally murder, all this and more is part of "The Hound of the Baskervilles." Presented was the stage version of the haunting short story adapted by Tim Kelly.
Being an Englishman of the Victorian era, Doyle wrote, as most of the eminent Vics, in a heavily descriptive manner. The supremacy of the English language — a received Shakespearean heritage — meant that description, exposition, and well-rounded three-member periodic sentences were the main vehicles for conveying the ideas of the author. This was taken to extreme stylistic lengths by an expatriate American, Henry James, whose recondite, involuted periodics were either the natural outcome of high style in literature or the nadir of substance overlaid with excessive style.
Doyle's style in "Hound" falls somewhere in between. In American literature Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" are seen as an American version, although earlier than Doyle, of the detective story. One could even include Gilbert Keith Chesterton's Father Brown short stories as evidence of this descriptive/expository style.
Kelly was faced with the problem of converting a short story narrative into theatrical mode — not easy in any case. The result was a fairly smooth rendition of Doyle's prose, the interpretation of which must needs be an actor's challenge.
It was not patent that Ron Palen was motivated by Holmesian stereotyping with deerstalker, cape and meerschaum, although he did pull out a magnifying glass, and uttered only one "Elementary." His delivery, however was credible; as good as it was in "Rope." There was even a smirky suppressed giggle in 1/32 of the audience when he mentioned the "ax murderess" Harriet Sedley: she of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" in which Palen played Sheridan Whiteside to the hilt. His attempt at an English accent, so well done in "Rope," was acceptable except that he would begin a sentence with a vocal blast but finish it in a whisper — not a stage whisper.
Doctor Watson was played by Michael J. Freed: Holmes's friend, roommate and foil. Freed seemed a tad more the butler he played in "The Hollow" than a doctor who had "… been to Afghanistan." However, in many a scene he dominated the boards.
Then we come to Lou Lentino as Sir Henry Baskerville. He has a Broadway face worthy of Hershfeld (that's a complement!) Tall and lean, he was the somewhat languid, monied Englishman, and, at times, the craven, indecisive weakling. He turned in a solid performance, prescinding a bit from his uneven delivery. Yet one is constrained to confess he handled the difficult role with obvious aplomb.
Evident capability was shone by Evan Donellan as Jack Stapleton, the rustic man of the moor, but who collected butterflies. He bellows, he threatens, but the Oxonian accent reveals — he is something else.
For newcomer Judith Anderson, it was her Minstrel debut playing Lady Mortimer — as a sort of Greek chorus role — in which she did not know what to believe about the authenticity of the hound. Yet she constantly presses Holmes to "solve" the case. Her performance was consistent as the troubled matriarch of Baskerville Hall.
Tara Palen, who played Kathy Stapleton, also directed. Her skill at blocking in this one-set play was with her usual competence; although your scribe opines that there could have been more attention to picking up lines more fluently. That nano-second space between lines from one character to the other proved a bit distracting. One thing that is indispensable in doing something English is absolute fluency of lines. It's the way our cousins talk. There's more to it than reciting lines.
The great proof of all of this will be seen in The Minstrels' next production, "Blithe Spirit" by Noel Coward. Coward is the supreme projector of sophisticated English wit and banter. If he could write "We'll Meet Again" in a London taxi on the way to the dress rehearsal, imagine what he can do with Sir Charles Condomine in "Blithe Spirit." Whoever directs this one has got to be supremely alert to the line-flow with all its pacing and nuances. Your scribe looks forward to its first night.
Tickets are $15, $12 seniors and children. Group rates are available. For tickets, call 732-2926 or go to the company's website www.minstrelplayers.org. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" runs through Nov. 15.
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