Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre - Revision history

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	'''PRODUCTION OF "SHERLOCK HOLMES."'''		'''PRODUCTION OF "SHERLOCK HOLMES."'''

	Not since the great American tragedian Booth more than twenty years ago electrified his auditory at the old Alexandra Theatre by the powerful intensity of his rendering of "King Lear" has any event associated with the visit of an American actor to this country approached in interest the performance given last night by Mr. William Gillette on the first production in England of the drama of "Sherlock Holmes." That play, of which Mr. A. Conan Doyle and Mr. Gillette are the joint authors, has in the United States achieved wide fame. It may at once be said, and without reserve, that such fame as it has achieved is well deserved. True, it is pure melodrams; and although much is comprehended in that greatly-abused term which it is quite impossible to praise, the name comprises, on the other hand, plays which have within recollection stirred the public imagination more deeply than any others. Take "The Bells" as an example. As regards, indeed, the sustained intensity of its effect, "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)\|Sherlock Holmes]]" can only be compared with the drama in which a generation ago Sir Henry Irving leaped into fame. But the parallel holds as regards the intensity of effect only. In all other respects there appears no point of resemblance. The story of the new drama is based on a novel, and, as far as we on this side of the water are concerned, hitherto unpublished episode in the remarkable series of imaginings Mr. Conan Doyle has woven round the wierdly strange personality of his imaginary detective hero. Holmes is entrusted with a case-a great confidential case-which has for its object the saving of the name of an exalted personage from public dishonour.		Not since the great American tragedian Booth more than twenty years ago electrified his auditory at the old Alexandra Theatre by the powerful intensity of his rendering of "King Lear" has any event associated with the visit of an American actor to this country approached in interest the performance given last night by [[William Gillette\|Mr. William Gillette]] on the first production in England of the drama of "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)\|Sherlock Holmes]]." That play, of which [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Mr. A. Conan Doyle]] and [[William Gillette\|Mr. Gillette]] are the joint authors, has in the United States achieved wide fame. It may at once be said, and without reserve, that such fame as it has achieved is well deserved. True, it is pure melodrams; and although much is comprehended in that greatly-abused term which it is quite impossible to praise, the name comprises, on the other hand, plays which have within recollection stirred the public imagination more deeply than any others. Take "The Bells" as an example. As regards, indeed, the sustained intensity of its effect, "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)\|Sherlock Holmes]]" can only be compared with the drama in which a generation ago Sir Henry Irving leaped into fame. But the parallel holds as regards the intensity of effect only. In all other respects there appears no point of resemblance. The story of the new drama is based on a novel, and, as far as we on this side of the water are concerned, hitherto unpublished episode in the remarkable series of imaginings [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Mr. Conan Doyle]] has woven round the wierdly strange personality of his imaginary detective hero. [[Sherlock Holmes\|Holmes]] is entrusted with a case-a great confidential case-which has for its object the saving of the name of an exalted personage from public dishonour.

	In the first scene of the first act the main facts are swiftly, clearly, and dexterously stated, and attention is at once powerfully arrested. When, in what appear nearly hopeless circumstances, he by marvellous ingenuity defeats a villainous conspiracy, the villains in their extremity appeal to a personage, whome one is glad to think is only imaginary — a sort of head-centre in a wide combination of crime. The scene is laid in London, and the whole action is dexterously compressed into two days. It is as though all the most desperate and accomplished villains in London had formed what may be called a criminal "trust," whose ramifications are everywhere. The radiations of the whole nefarious business centre, however, in an individual of extraordinary criminal parts, known to his associates as "Professor Moriarty." Holmes in the course of various investigations has unearthed this association, the root and explanation of numerous unravelled mysteries. He has resolved to break it up and to bring the leaders of it to justice. Equally the leaders of it, knowing that he has succeeded in accumulating evidence enough to hang all or any of them, are determined to get rid of him, as they had got rid before of able criminal investigators who have made the same attempt. The main interest, therefore, is this combat between the "Professor," aided by his associates and resources, and the phenomenal skill, the strange insight, and the unfaltering daring of the great ~~detec tive~~. But this is cleverly made, after all, to hinge, as it were, on the first and minor case, the interest in which is kept up to the very last.		In the first scene of the first act the main facts are swiftly, clearly, and dexterously stated, and attention is at once powerfully arrested. When, in what appear nearly hopeless circumstances, he by marvellous ingenuity defeats a villainous conspiracy, the villains in their extremity appeal to a personage, whome one is glad to think is only imaginary — a sort of head-centre in a wide combination of crime. The scene is laid in London, and the whole action is dexterously compressed into two days. It is as though all the most desperate and accomplished villains in London had formed what may be called a criminal "trust," whose ramifications are everywhere. The radiations of the whole nefarious business centre, however, in an individual of extraordinary criminal parts, known to his associates as "Professor Moriarty." [[Sherlock Holmes\|Holmes]] in the course of various investigations has unearthed this association, the root and explanation of numerous unravelled mysteries. He has resolved to break it up and to bring the leaders of it to justice. Equally the leaders of it, knowing that he has succeeded in accumulating evidence enough to hang all or any of them, are determined to get rid of him, as they had got rid before of able criminal investigators who have made the same attempt. The main interest, therefore, is this combat between the "Professor," aided by his associates and resources, and the phenomenal skill, the strange insight, and the unfaltering daring of the great detective. But this is cleverly made, after all, to hinge, as it were, on the first and minor case, the interest in which is kept up to the very last.

	It is easy, therefore, to conceive with what zest, when his aid is invoked, Professor Moriarty employs every device, and exerts every art not merely to outwit Holmes, but to lure him to where he can without inconvenience be put out of the way. And here may be pointed out the feature which distinguishes this play from nearly every other melodrama. The common device is to exhibit virtue oppressed to breaking point until the end of the last act, when it is accorded a more or less improbable triumph. In "Sherlock Holmes," on the contrary, the force of justice and right is shown from the first armed with the greater skill, and as successfully baffling from the first the utmost ingenuity of evil. The four acts are a series of triumphs, and although you cannot see a hand's turn before you, and although situation succeeds situation, each more enthralling than the last, you are never for a moment permitted to lose confidence in the force of the hero. This is most inexpressible exciting. The very directness and simplicity of the method add to the dramatic power. The innate ingenuity of the ideas in which the play is based make any artificial deepening of the mystery altogether unnecessary. But then much depends on the employment of stage resource, and probably a better exhibition of fine and exact resource was never seen on the stage.		It is easy, therefore, to conceive with what zest, when his aid is invoked, Professor Moriarty employs every device, and exerts every art not merely to outwit [[Sherlock Holmes\|Holmes]], but to lure him to where he can without inconvenience be put out of the way. And here may be pointed out the feature which distinguishes this play from nearly every other melodrama. The common device is to exhibit virtue oppressed to breaking point until the end of the last act, when it is accorded a more or less improbable triumph. In "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)\|Sherlock Holmes]]," on the contrary, the force of justice and right is shown from the first armed with the greater skill, and as successfully baffling from the first the utmost ingenuity of evil. The four acts are a series of triumphs, and although you cannot see a hand's turn before you, and although situation succeeds situation, each more enthralling than the last, you are never for a moment permitted to lose confidence in the force of the hero. This is most inexpressible exciting. The very directness and simplicity of the method add to the dramatic power. The innate ingenuity of the ideas in which the play is based make any artificial deepening of the mystery altogether unnecessary. But then much depends on the employment of stage resource, and probably a better exhibition of fine and exact resource was never seen on the stage.

	This may be illustrated by the climax in the third act. The great detective allows himself to be lured. as it seems, to a certain den in Stepney, used by the criminal combination referred to as this special lethal chamber. The process is to bind a man by force, and there leave him to be asphyxiated with gas. afterwards taking his body out to sea. The circumstances under which Sherlock Holmes comes to enter this place have, like all the episodes in the play, every appearance of reasonable probability. He is alone, and against him are four desperate blackguards, three of whom are the practised "executioners" of the combination. He has not only to get out himself, but to rescue at the same time a lady, who is a prominent personage in the particular case he is engaged upon. There is a strongly-barred window, and a door with an ingenious arrangement of bolts, which can be instantaneously manipulated. It hap pens that Holmes knows the place through the breaking up in time past of a gang of coiners, who made it their place of operations. Never did a case appear more desperate-the more so as the villains have succeeded in disarming him. But by doing the unexpected at every turn, by first suddenly extinguishing the light, and then causing his assailants to suppose that he is trying to escape by the window, which he leads them to think has been un. barred, he in a twinkling gets out through the door, the lady with him, and bolts it against them from the outside, using their own contrivance to trap them. All this complicated action was not only done without the least hitch, but was done with a swiftness and an apparently spontaneity which gave the most startling effect of realism.		This may be illustrated by the climax in the third act. The great detective allows himself to be lured. as it seems, to a certain den in Stepney, used by the criminal combination referred to as this special lethal chamber. The process is to bind a man by force, and there leave him to be asphyxiated with gas. afterwards taking his body out to sea. The circumstances under which [[Sherlock Holmes]] comes to enter this place have, like all the episodes in the play, every appearance of reasonable probability. He is alone, and against him are four desperate blackguards, three of whom are the practised "executioners" of the combination. He has not only to get out himself, but to rescue at the same time a lady, who is a prominent personage in the particular case he is engaged upon. There is a strongly-barred window, and a door with an ingenious arrangement of bolts, which can be instantaneously manipulated. It hap pens that [[Sherlock Holmes\|Holmes]] knows the place through the breaking up in time past of a gang of coiners, who made it their place of operations. Never did a case appear more desperate-the more so as the villains have succeeded in disarming him. But by doing the unexpected at every turn, by first suddenly extinguishing the light, and then causing his assailants to suppose that he is trying to escape by the window, which he leads them to think has been un. barred, he in a twinkling gets out through the door, the lady with him, and bolts it against them from the outside, using their own contrivance to trap them. All this complicated action was not only done without the least hitch, but was done with a swiftness and an apparently spontaneity which gave the most startling effect of realism.

	The stage management was perfect; and so, too, were the stage appointments, as witness the apparatus in Dr. Wilson's consulting-room in the fourth act, and its quite professional and expert use by the actor (Mr. Percy Lyndal) who impersonated the doctor. The whole acting of the play was like the accessories-a perfection alike in ensemble and in detail. Mr. Gillette's impersonation itself was almost strangely impressive. His clear and expressive voice, which he appeared not in the least to ~~excrt~~, though every syllable could be heard in the remotest corner of the theatre, his composed alertness of manner, which utilised. wealth of resources without any evident effort or strain, and his expressive and purely shaded elocution, which gave the wit and point of the dialogue both with brilliance and with weight, stamped him at once as the accomplished But the unmistakeable hallmark of the great actor was seen in the intensity of		The stage management was perfect; and so, too, were the stage appointments, as witness the apparatus in Dr. Wilson's consulting-room in the fourth act, and its quite professional and expert use by the actor ([[Percy Lyndal\|Mr. Percy Lyndal]]) who impersonated the doctor. The whole acting of the play was like the accessories-a perfection alike in ensemble and in detail. [[William Gillette\|Mr. Gillette]]'s impersonation itself was almost strangely impressive. His clear and expressive voice, which he appeared not in the least to exert, though every syllable could be heard in the remotest corner of the theatre, his composed alertness of manner, which utilised. wealth of resources without any evident effort or strain, and his expressive and purely shaded elocution, which gave the wit and point of the dialogue both with brilliance and with weight, stamped him at once as the accomplished But the unmistakeable hallmark of the great actor was seen in the intensity of artist. But the imagination with which he lived in the past, and yet guided and moulded his personification of it into a complete and consistent personality.
	artist.
	the imagination with which he lived in the past, and yet guided and moulded his personification of it into a complete and consistent personality.

	Just a word must be added in praise of Mr. W. L. Abingdon's striking impersonation of Moriarty, and of the grace and sweetness of Miss Maude Fealy's acting as Miss Faulkner. A ray of love-light shoots across the dark crime-saturated atmosphere, and, though it is but a ray, it is so intense and pure that it illumines and uprifies all, and in this illumination the curtain finally and fitly falls.		Just a word must be added in praise of [[W. L. Abingdon\|Mr. W. L. Abingdon]]'s striking impersonation of [[Professor Moriarty\|Moriarty]], and of the grace and sweetness of [[Maude Fealy\|Miss Maude Fealy]]'s acting as Miss Faulkner. A ray of love-light shoots across the dark crime-saturated atmosphere, and, though it is but a ray, it is so intense and pure that it illumines and uprifies all, and in this illumination the curtain finally and fitly falls.

	The reception accorded to Mr. Gillette was one of which any actor might well be proud. Such deafening and sustained cheers as greeted his reappearance after the third oct have never been beard within the walls of the Shakespeare Theatre. At the close of the play he was constrained, by a renewal of these plaudits, to come forward and make a brief speech, in which he too modestly gave the greater part of the credit to Mr. Conan Doyle, whose creation, he said, he had transferred to the stage "with as little damage as possible." Finally, he expressed his gratefulness for the warmth of his welcome to England.		The reception accorded to [[William Gillette\|Mr. Gillette]] was one of which any actor might well be proud. Such deafening and sustained cheers as greeted his reappearance after the third oct have never been beard within the walls of the Shakespeare Theatre. At the close of the play he was constrained, by a renewal of these plaudits, to come forward and make a brief speech, in which he too modestly gave the greater part of the credit to [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Mr. Conan Doyle]], whose creation, he said, he had transferred to the stage "with as little damage as possible." Finally, he expressed his gratefulness for the warmth of his welcome to England.

	In place of using a drop scene, the lights were turned off at the end of each act. This gave an effect of a picture fading from the vision, and added greatly to the realism.		In place of using a drop scene, the lights were turned off at the end of each act. This gave an effect of a picture fading from the vision, and added greatly to the realism.

TCDE-Team: Created page with "''Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre'' is an article published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 3 september 1901. About the play Sherlock Holmes at the ''Shakespeare Theatre'', Liverpool, UK. == Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre == [[Liverpool Daily Post (3 september 1901, p. 5..."

2026-07-13T13:56:20Z

Created page with "''Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre'' is an article published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 3 september 1901. About the play Sherlock Holmes at the ''Shakespeare Theatre'', Liverpool, UK. == Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre == thumb|250px|right|[[Liverpool Daily Post (3 september 1901, p. 5..."

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''Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre'' is an article published in the [[Liverpool Daily Post]] on 3 september 1901.

About the play [[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]] at the ''Shakespeare Theatre'', Liverpool, UK.

== Mr. William Gillette at the Shakespeare Theatre ==
[[File:liverpool-daily-post-1901-09-03-p5-mr-william-gillette-at-the-shakespeare-theatre.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Liverpool Daily Post]] (3 september 1901, p. 5)]]

'''PRODUCTION OF "SHERLOCK HOLMES."'''

Not since the great American tragedian Booth more than twenty years ago electrified his auditory at the old Alexandra Theatre by the powerful intensity of his rendering of "King Lear" has any event associated with the visit of an American actor to this country approached in interest the performance given last night by Mr. William Gillette on the first production in England of the drama of "Sherlock Holmes." That play, of which Mr. A. Conan Doyle and Mr. Gillette are the joint authors, has in the United States achieved wide fame. It may at once be said, and without reserve, that such fame as it has achieved is well deserved. True, it is pure melodrams; and although much is comprehended in that greatly-abused term which it is quite impossible to praise, the name comprises, on the other hand, plays which have within recollection stirred the public imagination more deeply than any others. Take "The Bells" as an example. As regards, indeed, the sustained intensity of its effect, "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1901 Shakespeare Theatre)|Sherlock Holmes]]" can only be compared with the drama in which a generation ago Sir Henry Irving leaped into fame. But the parallel holds as regards the intensity of effect only. In all other respects there appears no point of resemblance. The story of the new drama is based on a novel, and, as far as we on this side of the water are concerned, hitherto unpublished episode in the remarkable series of imaginings Mr. Conan Doyle has woven round the wierdly strange personality of his imaginary detective hero. Holmes is entrusted with a case-a great confidential case-which has for its object the saving of the name of an exalted personage from public dishonour.

In the first scene of the first act the main facts are swiftly, clearly, and dexterously stated, and attention is at once powerfully arrested. When, in what appear nearly hopeless circumstances, he by marvellous ingenuity defeats a villainous conspiracy, the villains in their extremity appeal to a personage, whome one is glad to think is only imaginary — a sort of head-centre in a wide combination of crime. The scene is laid in London, and the whole action is dexterously compressed into two days. It is as though all the most desperate and accomplished villains in London had formed what may be called a criminal "trust," whose ramifications are everywhere. The radiations of the whole nefarious business centre, however, in an individual of extraordinary criminal parts, known to his associates as "Professor Moriarty." Holmes in the course of various investigations has unearthed this association, the root and explanation of numerous unravelled mysteries. He has resolved to break it up and to bring the leaders of it to justice. Equally the leaders of it, knowing that he has succeeded in accumulating evidence enough to hang all or any of them, are determined to get rid of him, as they had got rid before of able criminal investigators who have made the same attempt. The main interest, therefore, is this combat between the "Professor," aided by his associates and resources, and the phenomenal skill, the strange insight, and the unfaltering daring of the great detec tive. But this is cleverly made, after all, to hinge, as it were, on the first and minor case, the interest in which is kept up to the very last.

It is easy, therefore, to conceive with what zest, when his aid is invoked, Professor Moriarty employs every device, and exerts every art not merely to outwit Holmes, but to lure him to where he can without inconvenience be put out of the way. And here may be pointed out the feature which distinguishes this play from nearly every other melodrama. The common device is to exhibit virtue oppressed to breaking point until the end of the last act, when it is accorded a more or less improbable triumph. In "Sherlock Holmes," on the contrary, the force of justice and right is shown from the first armed with the greater skill, and as successfully baffling from the first the utmost ingenuity of evil. The four acts are a series of triumphs, and although you cannot see a hand's turn before you, and although situation succeeds situation, each more enthralling than the last, you are never for a moment permitted to lose confidence in the force of the hero. This is most inexpressible exciting. The very directness and simplicity of the method add to the dramatic power. The innate ingenuity of the ideas in which the play is based make any artificial deepening of the mystery altogether unnecessary. But then much depends on the employment of stage resource, and probably a better exhibition of fine and exact resource was never seen on the stage.

This may be illustrated by the climax in the third act. The great detective allows himself to be lured. as it seems, to a certain den in Stepney, used by the criminal combination referred to as this special lethal chamber. The process is to bind a man by force, and there leave him to be asphyxiated with gas. afterwards taking his body out to sea. The circumstances under which Sherlock Holmes comes to enter this place have, like all the episodes in the play, every appearance of reasonable probability. He is alone, and against him are four desperate blackguards, three of whom are the practised "executioners" of the combination. He has not only to get out himself, but to rescue at the same time a lady, who is a prominent personage in the particular case he is engaged upon. There is a strongly-barred window, and a door with an ingenious arrangement of bolts, which can be instantaneously manipulated. It hap pens that Holmes knows the place through the breaking up in time past of a gang of coiners, who made it their place of operations. Never did a case appear more desperate-the more so as the villains have succeeded in disarming him. But by doing the unexpected at every turn, by first suddenly extinguishing the light, and then causing his assailants to suppose that he is trying to escape by the window, which he leads them to think has been un. barred, he in a twinkling gets out through the door, the lady with him, and bolts it against them from the outside, using their own contrivance to trap them. All this complicated action was not only done without the least hitch, but was done with a swiftness and an apparently spontaneity which gave the most startling effect of realism.

The stage management was perfect; and so, too, were the stage appointments, as witness the apparatus in Dr. Wilson's consulting-room in the fourth act, and its quite professional and expert use by the actor (Mr. Percy Lyndal) who impersonated the doctor. The whole acting of the play was like the accessories-a perfection alike in ensemble and in detail. Mr. Gillette's impersonation itself was almost strangely impressive. His clear and expressive voice, which he appeared not in the least to excrt, though every syllable could be heard in the remotest corner of the theatre, his composed alertness of manner, which utilised. wealth of resources without any evident effort or strain, and his expressive and purely shaded elocution, which gave the wit and point of the dialogue both with brilliance and with weight, stamped him at once as the accomplished But the unmistakeable hallmark of the great actor was seen in the intensity of
artist.
the imagination with which he lived in the past, and yet guided and moulded his personification of it into a complete and consistent personality.

Just a word must be added in praise of Mr. W. L. Abingdon's striking impersonation of Moriarty, and of the grace and sweetness of Miss Maude Fealy's acting as Miss Faulkner. A ray of love-light shoots across the dark crime-saturated atmosphere, and, though it is but a ray, it is so intense and pure that it illumines and uprifies all, and in this illumination the curtain finally and fitly falls.

The reception accorded to Mr. Gillette was one of which any actor might well be proud. Such deafening and sustained cheers as greeted his reappearance after the third oct have never been beard within the walls of the Shakespeare Theatre. At the close of the play he was constrained, by a renewal of these plaudits, to come forward and make a brief speech, in which he too modestly gave the greater part of the credit to Mr. Conan Doyle, whose creation, he said, he had transferred to the stage "with as little damage as possible." Finally, he expressed his gratefulness for the warmth of his welcome to England.

In place of using a drop scene, the lights were turned off at the end of each act. This gave an effect of a picture fading from the vision, and added greatly to the realism.

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