Sheerluck Jones (review 30 october 1901)
Sheerluck Jones is a review of the play Sheerluck Jones, or Why D'Gillette Him Off? published in The Sportsman on 30 october 1901.
Article
TERRY'S.
"SHEERLUCK JONES."
(A Dramatic Criticism in four paragraphes and as many headlines by Malcolm Watson and Edward La Seree.)
- Sheerluck Jones : Mr Clarence Blakiston
- Dr. Rotson : Mr Carter Pickford
- John Toanfroman : Mr J. Egerton Hubbard
- Sir Edward Sleighton : Prof. MacGillicuddy
- Baron Pumpermickel : Mr Sidney Pinch
- Prof. MacGillicuddy : Mr J. Willes
- James Scarabee : Mr Russell Norris
- Sidney Pinch : Mr F. Cremlin
- Thomas Bleary : Mr E. J. Blumberg
- Braigin : Mr A. James
- The Gas Collector : Mr Martin Harper
- Carsons : Mr Garry
- Little Billee : Mr Gunnis Davis
- Madge Scarabee : Miss Alice Powell
- Alice Baulkner : Miss Gordon Lee
Perhaps this skit is described as a dramatic criticism because it is the business of the two authors, one of whom here takes a nom de guerre, to write such stuff. It is a skit, nothing else, and an amusing one, though sight has been lost of the fact that sometimes the part may be greater than the whole. Forty-five minutes is as long as most people care for in the case of a piece of the kind. The limit last night infringed on the hour. Without being essential it is quite desirable to see the Lyceum play first. One's enjoyment of that over the way will be doubled at least. The story Dr. Conan Doyle and Mr Gillette have put into dramatic form is closely burlesqued in all the main points, and ludicrous indeed are some of the perversions hit upon. The servant at Scarabee's hides behind a pillar, which he drags aside when he wants to see anything, for it is only a piece of hanging canvas. The safe is fitted with a button hold only; an egg whisk is used to force it; moreover the letters being sought after so eagerly are on the top of it plainly labelled as such, though everybody is conveniently blind to the staring fact. Dr. Rotson is no less full of admiration for his friend Sheerluck's wonderful deductions because he refutes them all by a plain statement of the antecedent causes for plaster on his cheek, hair on his shoulder, a new coat on his back, and so forth. The man coming in to cut of the gas nearly ruins the diabolical plot against the imperturbable Jones, not that it would have mattered much, for as one of the conspirators bitterly complains the last three men they murdered there are walking about as well as ever through having escaped along with the gas instead of being smothered. Alice is a lively little miss who comes on with a dancing step and clings to some knitting. She has an American accent that would have been useful in last Saturday night's fog could one have had the loan of it. Miss Gordon Lee was charmingly pert and demure by turns as this young lady. Mr Russell Norris thundered forth Scarabee's ferocious sentiments in capital styles; Mr J. Willes, as the "Lipton of Crime," hit off one or two of Mr Abingdon's peculiarities cleverly, and Mr Blakiston was still happier in his caricature of Mr Gillette. On his shoulders the chief burden rests, and he carried it easily. Mr Hubbard also was excellent. The burlesque had a cordial reception, and it should do something both for its own and the other theatre. Note that "no one arriving after ten o'clock, and very few seated before that hour, can possibly understand the plot of the piece... Properties by their respective owners. The costumes more by accident than design." "A Tight Corner" remains what it was. We found it still amusing, even on a second and so early rehearing.
