Grisha Eidinov as Sherlock Holmes and Gregor Gunelson as Dr. Watson in “Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles.” PHOTO BY JACQUELINE DORMER
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on February 24, 2022.
Grisha Eidinov thinks Sherlock Holmes is a geek. He means it as a compliment.
“He is a very complex and enormously fun character to figure out,” Eidinov said of literature’s most famous detective. “Sort of an introvert that has the capacity to hold the whole world inside him.”
Eidinov plays Holmes in “Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles,” a stage adaptation of the classic 1902 mystery novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the third Sherlock Holmes production by Theatre Junction PA, a nonprofit theater group that has operated in Schuylkill County since the 1990s.
Performances are at the Majestic Theater in Pottsville at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. The play will also be staged the following weekend, at 7 p.m. March 4 and 5, and 2 p.m. March 6.
“You know how one creates a certain version in one’s mind, how a book you loved should be portrayed,” said Edinov, who grew up with Russian translations of Doyle’s complete works. “I very much have it with Sherlock Holmes. He is a lot more inquisitive and a lot less cold than he is usually portrayed.”
Gregor Gunelson, who plays Dr. Watson, feels the same way about the character he is portraying.
“The popular caricature of Dr. Watson is that of a rather dense or even foolish second banana to Holmes,” Gunelson said. “It’s off the mark and rather unfortunate because he is well regarded as a very capable, intelligent, accomplished man, a medical doctor and a wounded veteran who has found a career assisting the remarkable detective.”
Theatre Junction co-founder and artistic director Sasha Moscovit calls Sherlock the Victorian version of a Marvel superhero.
”His detective abilities are so far above average as to be supernatural,” she said. “He uses them to fight evil, he has a flair and some interesting character flaws.”
“Hound of the Baskervilles” is one of Theatre Junction’s many “Page to Stage” productions, theatrical adaptations of classic literature. Moscovit had to cut the length of the story in half, while still retaining all the important elements.
“The kind of production we are shooting for is, as all our previous ones, focused on finding and bringing to vivid life the key points that make certain classics so enduring and exciting,” she said. “Mystery, human passions, fears, hate, love and a cracking good story.”
Tickets to “Hound of the Baskervilles” are $15 and are available at the door and online at www.showtix4u.com/event-details/60944.
Part of the proceeds from the play will go to the Pottsville Free Public Library, and in a nod to the titular hounds, there will be a bin to collect items for the Hillside SPCA.
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