Are you a fan of Sherlock Holmes? Arthur Conan Doyle created the fictional character in 1887 when he first featured Holmes in his short story A Study in Scarlet. Even though the character has been around for nearly 150 years and Arthur Conan Doyle has been dead for more than 90 years, Sherlock Homes continues to inspire. Every few years it seems like there is a new movie, book or TV show featuring the detective — like the 2020 movie Enola Holmes and the TV series Sherlock, which came out in 2010.

Now we can add Brentwood High School to the list. Next week, BHS Theatre debuts its fall production Baskerville, a Sherlock Holmes inspired play. The play has a three-day run -November 21st, 22nd, and 23rd – and each show starts at 7 p.m.

Baskerville is a funny adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novel Hound of the Baskervilles which was published in 1902. The play, which premiered, is written by American playwright Ken Ludwig and was originally directed by Amanda Dehnert. While the play is considered a comedy, according to junior Kylie Spears, “It’s a very dramatic mystery. It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s so serious to the point where it’s funny.” In this production, Spears will be acting in the play, but she is also head of makeup and hair.

Ms. Carmody, the director, chose the play for many reasons, but the main one being that she felt like it was a good fit for the group of kids that the theatre program has this year. “We also kind of weren’t sure how many people were going to be in it, and this allowed us flexible casting,” she said.“We wanted to do something that was kind of in a different style than the other plays we’ve done in the last couple of years because we like to let the kids try being in different types of plays, so they get exposed to different genres.” 

In its original production, Baskerville, which features over 40 characters, was only played by five actors. In Brentwood’s production, there will be 12 students playing the roles of 42 characters! Actually there will be 10 students playing the roles of 40 characters since the leads, Zach Nelson and Austin Eslinger, who play Watson and Sherlock Holmes, won’t be playing anyone else.

Eslinger is excited about his role as Holmes. “I think our group is very good at comedy. We’re very geared towards that. So it’s very fun to, I don’t know, just mess around with your friends on stage and do jokes and stuff.”

Nelson had some thoughts, too. “I’m just excited for people to see it. I think it has a good mystery, and it’s gonna be funny,” he said. 

So whether you know someone in the play or not, come out next week and join the fun while supporting Brentwood’s wonderful theatre program!