TCDE-Team: Created page with "''The Lights of Holmes'' is an article published in Birmingham Evening Despatch on 9 may 1902. About the play Sherlock Holmes at the ''Prince of Wales Theatre'', Birmingham, UK. == The Lights of Holmes == [[Birmingham Evening Despatch (9 may 1902, p. 4)]] '''Some Curiosities of Stage Illumination.''' Few p..."

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Created page with "''The Lights of Holmes'' is an article published in Birmingham Evening Despatch on 9 may 1902. About the play Sherlock Holmes at the ''Prince of Wales Theatre'', Birmingham, UK. == The Lights of Holmes == thumb|250px|right|[[Birmingham Evening Despatch (9 may 1902, p. 4)]] '''Some Curiosities of Stage Illumination.''' Few p..."

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''The Lights of Holmes'' is an article published in [[Birmingham Evening Despatch]] on 9 may 1902.

About the play [[Sherlock Holmes (play 1902 Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham)|Sherlock Holmes]] at the ''Prince of Wales Theatre'', Birmingham, UK.

== The Lights of Holmes ==
[[File:birmingham-evening-despatch-1902-05-09-p4-plays-in-prospect.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Birmingham Evening Despatch]] (9 may 1902, p. 4)]]

'''Some Curiosities of Stage Illumination.'''

Few people who watch plays from the front have any idea what a delicate and artistic process can be made of the lighting of the stage.

The ordinary manager or play-producer is satisfied if he can imitate at a considerable distance the mid-day glory of the sun, while the leading man revels in sweet peaceful content so long as the limelight operator will oblige him with a halo. Darkling shades of eve are produced just as quickly and unnaturally as the crescent property moon mounts into the starlit canvas sky, and the gloom of early morn is dissipated with corresponding rapidity, what time the early pipe of half-awakened birds is heard from the wings.

A large proportion of convention there always must be in the theatre; yet managers do exist who realise that stage lighting, like the adverse critic, is only in its infancy.

When Mrs. Patrick Campbell produced "Pelleas and Melisande," she strove after high artistic lighting as well as high artistic costumes. But the proportion of darkness was so overwhelming that the Philistine playgoer, after barking his shins on his way to a seat, found himself in no fit frame of mind to appreciate the subtle effect produced by the tempered rays which fell upon the stage. Moreover as will be remembered by the Philistines who marvelled at that memorable performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre — Mrs. Campbell's excessive care for the poetic sensibilities of her audience led her into a semblance of domestic economy by having all lights turned out some minutes before the curtain rose.

It is calculated that more bad language was used on that truly spiritual occasion than has ever desecrated a Birmingham theatre.

Turning from Maeterlinck to pantomime, those who went to the last "Dick Whittington" at the old Theatre Royal have not forgotten the weird effect of those great red eyes which stared out above the orchestra when scenic changes were necessary. They jumped on one's nerves out of the darkness like the screech of a restive cat on the still night air.

Something similar has been seen at Prince of Wales pantomimes.

'''Darkness Visible.'''

But nothing to approach the strange tricks played by [[William Gillette|Mr. William Gillette]] in his production of "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1902 Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham)|Sherlock Holmes]]" had been experienced in Birmingham before last night. So curious was the effect that surprise found vent in gallery squeals, pit laughter, and circle shudders.

[[Sherlock Holmes]] being a man of mystery, everything must be done to make him mysterious. Such no doubt had been the manager's argument. He made noble efforts, which were entirely justified by the result.

To begin with, there is considerable darkness about the lighting of "[[Sherlock Holmes (play 1902 Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham)|Sherlock Holmes]]." When the time comes for the curtain to rise on a scene the lights go out simultaneously. It is then that the squeals and the shudders and the laughter begin.

You who read but have not seen can get no idea of the pitchy black darkness of the house. The greatest pains have been taken to keep out any ray of light, down to the fastening of pieces of felt over the little windows in the circle doors. For a few moments you feel this utter darkness. An awesome feeling is beginning to creep over you, when gradually the gloom becomes less visible. From black to dark gray, from dark gray to lighter, then a ruddy glow, and finally the head and shoulders of [[Sherlock Holmes]] irradiated by the fire in his Baker-street lodgings break into one's sphere of sight. It is then that the applause begins — the applause of relief as well as appreciation.

As is the beginning of the act, so is the ending. The last word having been spoken, the characters gradually fade away. You clap your hands, and they come again — four or five times, supposing you to be properly enthusiastic. Two seconds of darkness — lights up — and the curtain is down, though you never saw it descend. The illusion approaches perfection. [[Sherlock Holmes]] seems to have receded "into the night." Have we been dreaming about him? — one is almost impelled to ask.

Such tricks of lighting would surround a Royal marriage with 'romance. Even we, who know that [[Sherlock Holmes]] died a bachelor in an Alpine crevasse, are completely persuaded that he married sweet Alice Faulkner. Didn't he and she fade from our gaze locked in each other's arms?

Died in a crevasse? Nonsense! [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Dr. Conan Doyle]] can say what he likes. That lighting helps to convince us that his story is an absolute fiction.

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