The National Theatre of Brent has a lot to answer for. In 1980 Patrick Barlow and, notably, Jim Broadbent created a spoof theatre company which specialised in even more spoof and crazed productions of famous works such as The Messiah, The Zulu Wars and most successfully The 39 Steps (which regulars at the New Vic will fondly remember). They performed their mirthful miracles with scarce few actors and truck loads of props. And the public flocked to them; which didn't go unnoticed by other theatre companies. Richard Bean created the contemporary Goldini farce Man With Two Guvnors, the New Vic chimed in with their bonkers version of Around The World in 80 Days, and so on.
Everybody was deliriously happy, including the theatre accountants.

Around 8 years ago, Steven Canny and John Nicholson of the zany Peepolykus Theatre Company decided that Sherlock Holmes deserved the same treatment. Their resultant show went to the West End and the USA. Now, a further-honed version - directed by Joyce Branagh, is being staged at the New Vic Theatre and it's safe to say it's going to be another fabulous hit. The format is the same. A handful of extremely talented, super-slick actors playing all the parts themselves, backed up by a plethora of pastiche props and dozens of costume changes. How could it fail?

One advantage of doing The Hound of The Baskervilles is that Mr. Holmes is absent for much of the story, leaving actor Alex Phelps free to play as many other characters as he likes - from a criminal on the run to a buxom Spanish blonde. Tom Richardson plays as many members of the Baskerville family as he possibly can, and Alyce Liburn plays Dr. Watson as you've never seen him played before.

The show starts authentically enough with the sound of the howling hound bearing down on its victim on a darkened moor. Then the lights jolt on and the cast apologise for having forgotten to announce the obligatory health and safety 'terror warning' before the start. They then offer the weak-kneed amongst us an opportunity to leave now, without shame. Some hope!

From there on in the cast have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at their mercy. And the audience too.

This is an epic mickey-take of the classic tale. The script is so pun-ridden it could be an episode of the legendary radio show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, while the stunts give The Play That Goes Wrong a run for its money. Every gag is here. It's a cacophony of styles; a firework display of stage craft and some of the cleverest hamming-up you can imagine.

The set pieces shine. The bed swapping routine and the daring-do racing train sequence earn their own spontaneous applause. And the helter skelter action is laced with cringe-worthy running gags - the trundling door of 221B Baker Street (executed by actor Jerone Marsh-Reid disguised in a New Vic stage crew sweat shirt), Sir Henry Baskerville's wandering Canadian accent and Dr. Watson's constant hunger.

Alyce Liburn's gun-toting John Watson is a piece of absurd casting and not at all what you'd expect. Her hyper-energetic clowning reminded me of Charlie Caroli. Her facial expressions are ridiculously exaggerated and her mannerism wouldn't be out of place in a silent movie. Where the traditional Watson surfaces is in his faithful letter writing to Holmes and a hopeless inability to see through any of his master's disguises. Other than that, it's an off-the-wall freelance interpretation, and hilarious with it. Yet, despite the heavy send-up, Doyle's story survives. We get practically all of it and, remarkably, a great many of its characters have their moment in the sun.

It just gets more ridiculous. In the gloom, the swelling quick sand appears through the swirling mist and Watson and his fellows have to cross it with care by doing a Gangnam style dance, illuminated by a neon light sign pointing to Grimpa Mire. At this point I fancy Doyle might have thrown himself in.

What has changed in the last 40 years of send-up theatre comedy is the advent of the mobile phone. The problem is, all the audience now have them and, apparently (I never knew this), post adverse comments about the play in the interval. The other problem is the actors in the dressing room have them too and can read the comments. Which sets up a very clever opening to the second half when the cast decide to punish the audience for being too critical of the first half. I'd noticed that around 80% of the story had already been told by half-time and wondered how the cast were going to fill out Act 2. But my lips are sealed on that one.

Holmes purists with an aversion to immaculate naff-ness might do well to avoid this show. The rest of us will chortle all night long.   

Four stars

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme on Wednesday 19 February. The Hound of The Baskervilles continues to show at the venue until Saturday 14 March.