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The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Alhambra Theatre:

mixed reviews by 2nde 2 European section

 

Hello everybody, today our special edition is dedicated to the mysteries of London and more particularly to the famous play adaptation of Sir Conan Doyle’s novel : The Hound of the Baskervilles. 

They are back! The duet of the most famous detectives of English culture, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, returns to a theatre near you in a new exciting production  by Théatre en Anglais

 

Will you have the chance to watch it or not? Don’t worry, if you can’t, just sit comfortably in your sofa, relax, take a deep breath and let us introduce this project.

On April 1st, we went to the Alhambra Theatre, in Paris, in order to see  an adaptation by Andrew London and directed by Lucille O’flanagan.

Alissa, Anaëlle, Louis, Justine, Lucas A

Plot

In this play, Sherlock Holmes has to solve a difficult and bloody mystery.   Anaelle

Even if not everyone likes this type of investigation, we can’t deny that the story is exciting, well-written and really, really intriguing.  Lucas A

It remains faithfull to Doyle's book yet some things changed and there were witty moments. Mona

Staging

There is  a lot of  suspense and a touch of British humour.

When tension is at the its most the actors always make a small joke which relaxes the atmosphere. Tension does not stop rising and the mystery of the culprit is kept till the end. Amel

I liked the play, it was interesting, funny and with lots of suspense. Eugénie

The ambiance was suspenseful with the mystery of the murder, of course, but also with the soundtrack which was either thrilling, intriguing or tragic. Lorène

While keeping the original and unusual elements of Sherlock Holmes's famous inquiries the play also acquires a modern vision, for example with a song interpreted by the actors at the beginning of the play. Justine

I liked the beginning. The actors started singing, like in the beginning of a movie, it made the audience laugh. Léna

How they began with singing was a good idea to captivate us. Ninon

The play was comical, the characters were funny and the investigation too. Marie

The major flaw of this play is that the plot was sometimes tricky. Marine L

I loved the staging : it was dynamic, sometimes funny….. I appreciated when they made us imagine situations whith some objects, for example when Watson imitates the carriage, spining an umbrella very fast  to represent a wheel.  It was a  entertaining scene.  Louis

Some parts were very enjoyable and hilarious . Others suspenseful or a little bit terrifying and fascinating. Mathidle

Acting

One of the most surprising aspect of the play is the actors themselves. The four actors are brilliant. Lucas A

The cast is perfect. I liked their actors' perfomances and their mimicking.  Mathidle

I think the actors were very professional,  and at-ease on stage. Sherlock was very well-represented, with his famous hat and his inimitable British accent.  Anaëlle

I think that the lack of actors made it difficult to understand who was who, as they switched roles depending on the scene. Léna

During the play, I felt a little bit lost. The fact that one person played several characters was quite disturbing.  Anaëlle

I enjoyed the way some of them were playing different roles at the same time. Marine L

First, this play is played by captivating-amusing and brilliant actors.Those amazing  performers where only four and that only makes the show more entertaining. Indeed, in one part of the play, one actor plays about  three roles at the same time, seeing him change himself on stage makes the show funny for the public. Alissa

I liked the fact that they walked down the aisles of the theatre to be with the audience. Marie
 

The Baskervilles property was really frightening and the servants too (Mr and Mrs Barrymore).

The neighbours are also terrifying and strange so they are also suspected.  Coincidentally, the killer is Mr. Stapleton. Roger

 

 

I salute Camille Lecointre's performance. She interprets two roles,  Laura Lyons and Beryl Stapleton.  Hier acting was so impressive that at the beginning I thought that there were two different actresses. Justine

The actors were fascinating especially Sherlock Holmes, I love how he mixed fun and mystery. Ninon
 

Let’s finish with my favourite actor in this play, Dominic Gould as Dr Watson. He is already “famous”, having embarked on a bilingual acting career in film, television and theatre. His acting is simply perfect, perfect vocal performance, amazing acting. He was striking, witty, amazing… The perfect actor! Lucas A

Setting

The decor was animations projected on the stage, so it was more captivating and true-to-life. Mathilde

In my opinion, there are not enough props on stage. The background is not really realistic, but the real negative points are the three dimension animations and the sound effects which are not realistic. Lucas A

The setting changed thanks to a screen which projected pictures of different places. And sometimes, videos between the scenes appeared. They created the atmosphere of the story. But it was a bit too much. Alexia

English

I didn’t understand everything but globally, I found that it was a good experience to watch an English play, because we can perceive another vision of  art. Anaëlle

The story was captivating but the English language was too fast for us to understand everthing and the end of the story was confusing and complicated. Ninon

I think it was well-written, however it was a little complex. Some people did not understand all because it might have been confusing and sometimes complicated.  Mona

There are a lot of jokes for the audience like when Sherlock Holmes talks in French. Roger

They speak with an excellent British accent which puts us into the context  of  Victorian London. Besides, the show has a small touches of English humour in its language.  It was easy to understand for most of the people, sometimes original and surprising asides made the audience laugh. Alissa

The English language was easy to understand. Olaïde

The language was very elaborate, perhaps too much, because we didn’t understand all the dialogue between the characters but I think the writer wanted to be as faithful as possible to the original text. And Even if we didn’t understand the dialogue their acting was stellar and we could discover the story with the the actors’ gestures.  Lorène

Costumes

The costumes were incredible and fitted in with the  theme. Mona

The actors were very convincing with their realistic and elaborate period costumes, in accordance with the original story. Lancelot

The ambiance was complete with the costumes and props which were true to the period of Sherlock Holmes. Lorène

Overall appreciation

I thought the end was predictable. I am pretty sure everyone knew who the killer was. Mona

 

Overall, I enjoyed this play even if the end was a little disappointing. Léna

 

I strongly recommend the play to fans of mysteries of all kinds. Justine

 

To conclude, The Hound of the Baskervilles was an breath-taking show during which no one could get bored. It was easy to follow. Alissa

 

To conclude, in my opinion, this play is 70% perfect. The original company’s idea is really interesting, the story is well-written and intriguing, the costumes are really nice and realistic, the actors are brilliant and striking. Unfortunately, the lights, the staging, the setting, the sounds and particularly the specials effects mean that I have mixed feelings about the play… Lucas A

I haven’t really enjoyed this adaptation of the original plot because, as some characters were missing, the culprit was too easy to unmask. To conclude, I would say that this is a witty and vibrant story played by a brilliant cast.
However, the adaptation was not tricky enough for the story to be as thrilling as it should have been. But I have had a very good time despite all, and I encourage you to watch this play, and certainly, its stellar cast. Lancelot

It was an intense and suspenseful play. I loved the interpretation as well as the brilliant staging. I recommend this play to those who love Sherlock Holmes. Olaïdé

 

On the whole, a lively plays to see with your teenagers to make discover them the classics of literature provided that they love mystery murder. Lorène

A play not to be missed ! Eugénie

 

 

First we did Act 4 scene 1 : Josephine, Lucas A, Marine, Mathilde, Roger and Anaëlle played.  Joe gave some advice to Lucas and Josephine to improve the scene (speak louder, the position, gesturing, emotion, action…). Lucas tried to play a donkey but it was difficult for him. Mathilde and Marine worked on their entrance, Marine did somersault and Mathilde turned around. We practised this scene for 1 hour.

During the second hour we did some games: we walked with eyes closed to help Lucas K, Ninon, Alexia and Tim for their characters because they will have to do that in the play for scene 2.

It was interesting to see the improvement between the last session and this session because the actors played better (they got in the mind of the character).  However, some students didn’t play and it was too long for them.

Marine H and Marie.