The Hound of the Baskervilles is Kevin Jenkins’ fifth design project for the Torch Theatre having previously designed Private Lives, Beauty and the Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. He has designed numerous productions for Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and returns to the Torch Theatre once again this year as chaos, clues, and canine capers collide in this riotously funny, fast-paced adaptation by John Canny and Stephen Nicolson - the moors will never, ever be the same!

Anwen caught up with Kevin to find out more and to see how the plans are coming along ...

Tell us how you’ve gone about designing the set and costumes for The Hound of the Baskervilles

The starting point was really the tone of this adaptation balanced with iconic characters. It is also fast, playful and very funny, so the design needs to be able to shift location and mood very quickly without ever slowing the action down.

The set and costumes have therefore developed together. There is a recognisably Victorian world underneath it all, but we are not being too precious about historical realism. Everything has to serve the comedy, the storytelling and, particularly, the speed of the piece.

Has it been a challenge?

Yes, but in a good way! There are an extraordinary number of locations, characters and, therefore, costume changes packed into the show, so the challenge has been finding a simple visual language that can contain all of that.

You don’t want the audience sitting there waiting for scenery to change. Ideally the transformations become part of the fun, so a lot of the design process has been about finding economical, theatrical solutions rather than trying to reproduce every location literally.

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan and if so has this helped with the design element of the production?

I’m actually not particularly a Sherlock Holmes fan, which may be a terrible thing to admit while designing The Hound of the Baskervilles!

In some ways, though, I think that has been quite useful. Obviously I know the visual language we associate with Holmes, but I haven’t felt overly protective of it. I can look at what the audience needs to recognise and what we can play with. This version certainly isn’t interested in treating Sherlock Holmes as a museum piece.

Explain a little about the scenery and the George Henry Jenkins Dartmoor painting that inspired the backdrop.

The moor is enormously important because it gives the whole story its atmosphere. Rather than trying to build a realistic Dartmoor landscape on stage, I wanted to use a large painted backdrop. While researching Victorian paintings of Dartmoor, I came across the work of George Henry Jenkins. His paintings are slightly later in period, but I loved his use of colour, light and atmosphere.

I created the painting used in the set in response to his work, using it as a large scenic backdrop, an atmospheric, slightly ominous image that sits behind the action and helps establish the world of the moor.

Without giving too much away, there’s a trap door, quick sand and a flying bed ... can you share some set secrets with us?

I probably shouldn’t explain exactly how any of them work because half the pleasure is seeing them appear!

What I can say is that we are very happily embracing old-fashioned stagecraft. There are things appearing, disappearing, moving and flying, and quite a lot of the fun comes from allowing the audience to see that they are watching theatre rather than trying to disguise every trick.

How important have colours played a part in the set design as the inspiration comes from the rolling, mysterious moors of Dartmoor?

Colour has been really important. The landscape gives us a palette of earthy greens, browns, greys with highlights of heather.  Those more muted moorland colours help create the atmosphere and give the production a coherent world.

Tell us about the inspiration behind the costumes, and can we expect Sherlock Holmes to reflect the detective we all know and love?

There are certainly enough familiar clues that audiences will immediately recognise Holmes and the Victorian world he inhabits.

Because the actors are playing multiple characters, the costumes also have to do a lot of storytelling very quickly. A hat, a coat or one strong detail sometimes needs to tell the audience who somebody is almost instantly.

So Holmes is recognisably Holmes, but he belongs specifically to this production rather than being an impersonation of somebody else’s Sherlock.

With so many costume changes, how do you start a project like this?!

With a very large spreadsheet!

You start by mapping absolutely everything, who is playing whom, when they enter, when they leave, how long they have to change and which costumes can share elements. Then you begin working backwards from the impossible changes.

There is no point designing an elaborate costume if an actor has twelve seconds to get out of it and become somebody else. Sometimes a costume needs to be built to transform incredibly quickly, and sometimes the speed or obviousness of that transformation can actually become part of the comedy.

It’s a bit of a puzzle, but that is also one of the most enjoyable things about designing a show like this.

The Hound of the Baskervilles can be seen on the Torch Theatre stage from Wednesday 7 October to Saturday 17 October with a BSL interpreted Performance on Tuesday 13 October. Tickets from £18. Phone the Box Office on 01646 695267 or visit torchtheatre.co.uk.