4 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Sherlock Holmes
(Frank Jagodnik),
right, and his trusty
assistant, Doctor
Watson (David Sweeney)
GEORGE VETTER PHOTO/
CANNON-BEACH.NET
‘Baskerville,’ a
melodramatic take on
Sherlock Holmes, opens
June 22 at Coaster Theatre
By KATHERINE LACAZE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
S
ir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved
crime-solving duo, Sherlock
Holmes and Doctor Watson, will
get a melodramatic makeover at the
Coaster Theatre Playhouse this summer
in “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes
Mystery,” opening Friday, June 22, and
running through Saturday, Sept. 1.
“The whole play itself is a valentine
to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s text, but
also to theater itself, because there are
a lot of theatrical devices audiences
normally don’t see in modern theater,”
said Director Jenni Tronier, who loves
“a good murder-mystery” and directed
Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Nile”
in 2015. “There is a lot of suspension
of disbelief required on the part of the
audience.”
In writing the script, American play-
wright Ken Ludwig closely followed
Doyle’s original work, “The Hound of
the Baskervilles.” What is needed to
transform this literary classic — brim-
ming with action, adventure and dozens
of interesting characters — into a stage
production are theatrical, sometimes
farcical devices: absurd props, breaking
the fourth wall, quick changes into new
costumes both on and offstage, and
plenty of sound and light cues.
The show’s small cast of Coaster
Theatre veterans includes Frank Jagod-
nik as Sherlock Holmes, David Swee-
ney as Doctor Watson, Slab Slabinski
as Actor One, Ryan Hull as Actor Two
and Emily Dante as Actress One.
Under the guidance of Tronier, they
have been given vastly different tasks:
Jagodnik and Sweeney must breathe
new life and distinction into a famous
duo already portrayed a dozen times
Continued on Page 14