Similarities Between The Hound Of The Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles, written in 1902 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has all the aspects of a good mystery novel. Recently, yet another adaption has been made in the form of the play The Hound of the Baskervilles, performed by the Virginia Stage Company, which illustrates how a timely classic can be an exciting and funny story, where the audience completely forgets about the mystery aspect to tune in on the jokes being shot out a mile a minute. The Hound of the Baskervilles play, performed by the Virginia Stage Company and originally written by Steven Canny and John Nicholson, has an abundance of similarities to The Hound of the Baskervilles novel, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, such as certain elements of the plot and characters;

Barrymore, and Mrs. Stapleton, to name a few. For example, Mrs. Stapleton had a drastically different personality. Unlike the mild-mannered and abused wife of Mr. Stapleton originally illustrated to us by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (p. 101), this recreated Mrs. Stapleton is over-the-top, flamboyant, and exotic, not to mention her name has been changed by the scriptwriter from Beryl to Cecile, which rolls off the tongue as more of a Spanish name. The love the original Beryl has for Sir Henry is only displayed through Watson saying, “I am much mistaken if the feeling was not mutual.” (p. 112), whereas the play is seasoned with a passionate flamenco or tango dance, where the company even utilizes a dummy to perform difficult spins while the actors change costumes. Equally important, Watson is a smarter man in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the play; or is it just that Holmes is not as bright? In The Hound of the Baskervilles original novel, Holmes is truly a genius, figuring out the answer to every question imaginable regarding the case, but in the play Watson is the one who figures out the truth, which Holmes does figure out at some point. Quite possibly, the scriptwriters figured out that most readers were bored with the constant knowledge of Holmes and wanted to see him being out down; therefore, they chose to reverse roles to make the story and comedy more

The play wasn’t focusing on exposing the criminal, because it was made so obvious. Most notably, the iconic shepherd characters were added at the train station scene to provide some pure comedic relief in the midst of the mystery. They were not included in the book, but were created solely for the purpose of entertainment and to move the scene along. The audience was grasped by the presence of Steven Canny and his acting skills for the silly, “lamb in a bag,” recurring theme. Each time it happened, the laughter of the audience grew. This moved the scene along, rather than having a sharp stop from the train to getting to the house. The addition of these characters would not have added to the original because they are only there to be laughed at. Additionally, rather than having the long, boring, and serious train ride (pp. 78-82), the writers chose to stretch the skills of the actors and have them take part in a musical montage. A fast-motion portrayal of a typical “fun movie train ride” while the actors repeatedly bounced up and down. The scriptwriters must have thought that the events of the train ride, such as the excitement of Sir Henry, the worrying Watson etc. were rather boring or superfluous, for none of the train ride events contribute to the overall solution. Instead, they decide to add to the comedic aspect through this