A whimsical parody of the murder mystery ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is all set to make its debut on the digital season of Aadyam, the theatre initiative by the Aditya Birla Group.
The play, directed by Aakash Khurana, will be screened via insider.in’s online streaming service making it the second play of Aadyam’s Digital Edition. Adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson, this is a comic take on the Sherlock Holmes story that turns a tale of terror into an engaging burlesque.
The cast features Vivek Madan as Sherlock Holmes, Arghya Lahiri as Dr. Watson and Nadir Khan as Sir Charles Baskerville. Celebrating a cult novel from over a century ago, the artists along with the entire production team have created a piece that is thoroughly entertaining while delivering remarkable performances. The gloriously funny parody of this famous story becomes special with greater reason – the three seasoned actors — Madan, Lahiri and Khan — play not 3 but a total of 15 characters.
In a display of pure virtuosity and prowess, the veteran actors take up multiple roles in the play also adding to the comic element of the show. At one instance, Vivek Madan is Sherlock, at another he is the guard, the scary lady, Mrs Barrymore, and several other characters. In similar fashion, Lahiri and Khan also essay multiple roles with brilliance.
According to Shernaz Patel, Aadyam’s Artistic Director, “There is no better way to welcome 2021 than with laughter. Not the intellectual kind. The farcical, slapstick, gloriously silly kind. The kind you can enjoy with the full family, kids definitely included. Produced by one of India’s leading production companies and directed by thespian Akash Khurana, you will marvel at the skill and madness of the three wonderful actors as they change characters, accents, costumes and wigs in the blink of an eye. This fun and inventive take on one of the classics of English literature has been shot the Aadyam way – on a set, in an auditorium, with a multi-camera set up. So if your New Year’s resolution is to forget the blues and start afresh, then be sure not to miss this ridiculously funny spoof.”
On his experience with creating a play for the screens, Director Akash Khurana says, “It’s certainly a very new experience but the actors and the entire crew have been extremely supportive through the making of this play. There was added pressure to perfectly execute this script while maintaining the humour quotient, but considering the collective hard work that went into it, we are very hopeful that the audience will enjoy watching this one as much as we did putting it together for them.”
The play was first staged by Aadyam in 2015 when it received rave reviews not for a riveting murder mystery that the plot originally dwells upon, but for a cheeky, humorous twist that an audience with a sense of humour truly enjoyed.
Show date and timings: January 9, January 16 and January 17 at 7 PM. Tickets on insider.in.
(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
