Sacramento Theatre Company’s ‘Baskervilles’ gets bogged down

A mysterious murder on a foggy moor, a wailing hound, and a 7 percent solution waiting in the wings. Elementary logic and deduction will tell you master detective Sherlock Holmes lurks here somewhere.

The often-stiff new Sacramento Theatre Company production of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” receives heavy lifting from William Elsman as the famous sleuth of Baker Street with admirable support from Michael RJ Campbell as his trusted associate, Dr. Watson. The two actors reprise the same roles they played previously at STC and again give audiences a splash of fun.

There’s mood, mystery and a hint of whimsy in the original story, which is translated through the literate adaptation by R. Hamilton Wright and David Pichette. Director Michael Laun’s production puts some of that on stage, but there’s also sodden dullness as if the production itself were stuck in the famous bog.

The story deals with a curse, an inheritance and several characters who are not exactly who they seem to be. Elsman’s crafty, charming Holmes and Campbell’s comic Watson are the main reasons to see this by-the-book mystery.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Sacramento Theatre Company’s ‘Baskervilles’ gets bogged down."