"Sherlock Holmes" at the Lyceum Theatre (article 15 april 1902)
"Sherlock Holmes" at the Lyceum Theatre is an article published in The Scotsman on 15 april 1902.
About the play Sherlock Holmes at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, UK.
"Sherlock Holmes" at the Lyceum Theatre
It required a good deal of courage and ingenuity to attempt to dramatise any of the incidents in the career of Sherlock Holmes, and that the creator of the famous detective and the American actor-dramatist, Mr Wm. Gillette, should not have been entirely successful is hardly to be wondered at. One has been so fascinated by the subtle intellect and brilliant deductions of Holmes in the novel, with his intuitive instinct for solving the most difficult criminal problems, that when he is seen in the flesh much of the glamour which he cast over his readers is removed: for his intellectual triumphs on the stage are, on the whole, rather commonplace, and would not baffle the ingenuity of any ordinary member of the force at Scotland Yard. "Sherlock Holmes," which was produced at the Lyceum Theatre last night for the first time in Scotland, is a melodrama of somewhat indifferent quality, so far as dramatic an is concerned, and it presents the hero as a mere stage figure, with no very intricate task before him. The play depends entirely for its success on theatrical effect, and the production is certainly on a very elaborate and most complete scale, with some exceedingly clever stage management. Before being brought to this country the piece ran for two years in the United States, and having just closed an eight months' season at the London Lyceum, it is now being taken on tour by three companies, the chief of which brings it to Edinburgh. The story which Dr Conan Doyle has written deals with the "Strange Case of Miss Faulkner." It was not included in the celebrated Sherlock Holmes series, and it may be said that it is not one of the author's best efforts in unravelling difficult and complicated crimes. The plot is detective melodrama pure and simple, and it is easy to see from the first that Holmes will triumph over his foes; but of its kind it is a very effective play, and as such it was evidently appreciated by a very large audience, most of whom must have made the acquaintance of the original hero in the novel. The enterprise in which he is engaged is the recovery of some compromising letters from Miss Faulkner, a young lady who intends using them to avenge a dead sister on her aristocratic betrayer. The Larrabees, a pair of unscrupulous adventurers. have met Miss Faulkner and her mother abroad, and with the object of obtaining possession of the documents for blackmailing purposes they invited the two ladies to their London home, in which they were practically kept prisoners. The villains of the piece secure the services of Professor Moriarty, a consummate and very up-to-date desperado, who carries on his vocation in a subterranean vault with all the resources of modern science at his command and a gas chamber in which he asphyxiates his victims. The action is concerned for the most part in the conflict between these two opposing intellects the Napoleon of crime being pitted against the Wellington of detectives, with the foregone conclusion that the criminals will be worsted. The Professor decides on murdering Holmes, who is lured to the lethal apartment, and Moriarty's satellites are about to tie him to the table preparatory to the gas being turned on. Holmes, however, smashes the lamp, and in the darkness manages to elude his enemies by the rather feeble artifice of placing his lighted cigar on the window-sill that its glow may mislead, his assailants and draw them away from the door in order that he may escape from the house. It is not easy to picture the busy investigator of gigantic crimes as a man with a very susceptible heart, but Sherlock in the drama has distinctly amorous propensities. He finds time for love-making, the affection being at first pretended for professional business purposes, but in the end he marries Miss Faulkner, after persuading her to abandon her scheme of revenge. There is not much comic relief in the play, and what little humour is attempted is not of a bright quality. Whatever may be thought of the work, however, from a dramatic point of view, there can be no gainsaying the excellence of the performance. the scenes being at times exciting, occasionally thrilling, and always interesting. Without Mr Gillette the play would undoubtedly pall. In the title-role he acted with a good deal of reserve, and realised in appearance, voice, look, and gesture the Sherlock Holmes which Conan Doyle drew. He was the same calm, self-possessed personage. speaking his sharp and incisive sentences in a cold monotone, and with stolid features, but with all his faculties keenly alert, and ready at every turn for action and to form those marvellously successful deductions which made his reputation. To friend and foe alike he presented the same inscrutable demeanour, his impersonation of a very difficult and trying part being striking, impressive, and effective. Mr W. L. Abingdon sustained the character of the arch-criminal. Professor Moriarty, with considerable ability in his underground office, which is the first scene in the second act, but when confronted with Holmes in the second scene he was a little stagey, and allowed the detective to have the best of the interview rather easily. Mr Percy Lyndal made an agreeable and in every respect satisfactory Dr Watson, the bosom friend of Holmes; Mr Ralph Delmore, as James Larrabee, made his villainy too grim and palpable; Mr Harry Paulton, jun., did his best to be amusing as a cracksman; and Mr Henry M'Ardle was very smart and clever as Sherlock's page-boy. The female partner of Larrabee in his wicked schemes had a very able representative in Miss Alida Cortelyon, who played the unpleasant character with dramatic force and intelligence. Miss Amy Betteley was sweet and pleasing as the young lady in possession of the compromising papers; and the other parts were very capably filled. Among other scenic effects introduced as an ingenious contrivance by which darkness was made to take the place of the ordinary curtain, and this enabled the scene to be gradually developed to the audience before it was entirely lit up. There was a recall at the end of each act, and at the final fall of the curtain Mr Gillette had to respond to the demands of the crowded audience and speak a few words of thanks for the welcome that had been extended to him on his first visit to Edinburgh.
