The Royal Manitoba Theatre Society is back on it’s 2016 regional tour, performing a madcap re-telling of the quintessential Sherklock Holmes tale, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The tour will be making three stops in Northern Manitoba, visiting Flin Flon Feb. 21, Snow Lake Feb. 23 and Thompson Feb. 24.
The play is a parody of Arthur Conan Doyle’s more straight-faced novel. Attendees can expect an engaging experience, with plenty of self-awareness and audience engagement. But at the heart of the play’s comical telling is the cast: the play stars Arne MacPherson as Sherlock Holmes, Toby Hughes as John Watson, and Aaron Pridham as Sir Henry Baskerville. But the actors won’t be limited to just one role: in fact, the three cast members will play all 17 characters, making for a wild night of concerted chaos for audience and actors alike. Touring and Production co-ordinator Laura Enns noted that the team regularly spends up to an hour planning their movements around every stage, co-ordinating costume changes, character placements, etc.
With 17 characters and running two hours, one expects that preparation would require considerable rehearsal. However, Enns notes that the actors required only two weeks of rehearsal time, as opposed to the usually three-and-a-half: “Two of the actors had already performed the play with the Prairie Theatre Exchage, but our lead, Arne MacPherson, had not, so he had the biggest challenge in learning his lines. “He did a fantastic job,” Enns says, “We’re all pretty blown away.”
In Flin Flon, tickets can be found at Northern Rainbow’s End. In Snow Lake, they’re available at Cornerview Family Foods, while in Thompson, tickets are available at the Thompson Regional Community Centre.
