Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON

Western Canada Theatre’s ‘Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery’ set to open next week

Jan 17, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — If you’re looking to relieve some winter tedium of your own, Western Canada Theatre’s upcoming production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery should prove to be a fun experience for audiences aged 12 years and up.

“We’ve done this play already. We did it in Gananoque, Ontario which is about three hours east of Toronto. It had a 30-performance run there, which was really successful and audiences loved it,” director Brett Christopher tells CFJC Today. “I’m really thrilled to bring it to the West Coast and to do it here in Kamloops.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson, are iconic characters in literature and popular culture. Jamie Cavanagh, who plays the titular detective, is excited to bring his version of Holmes to life on the Sagebrush Theatre stage.

“When I first got cast, I thought, ‘Okay, well my job is to do my own version of [Holmes] and to do my own homework, and trust my homework, and trust that it will work,’” Cavanagh explains. “If the script works then the character will work. I just need to be faithful to the script and we’ll give Kamloops a brand new version of Sherlock Holmes.”

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This version of the 1902 classic The Hound of the Baskervilles is somewhat different than the original, or even the film versions that have been produced throughout the years.

Image Credit: CFJC Today/Western Canada Theatre

“You have Sherlock, you have Watson, then you have three other actors who play 30-plus parts, all of the various characters in the story,” Christopher tells media members assembled for Wednesday’s press bash.

“We are injecting comedy into this thing at every possible opportunity,” Cavanagh says. “You may have seen Baskerville before, but you haven’t seen this Baskerville, and I promise it’s going to be side-splittingly funny.”

The cast and crew are hoping Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery is as much fun for the audience as it is for them on stage.

“For me, what’s so exciting about making a play is the audience experience,” Christopher says. “Much of this will ask of the audience to react and to have fun and to enjoy the Sherlock Holmes story but also to understand that we’re winking to the crowd and we’re enjoying ourselves as much as they are.”

With a preview on Thursday, January 25, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery opens on Friday, January 26 and runs until February 3. For tickets, visit Kamloops Live Box Office.