A Study in Thrills
A Study in Thrills is an article published in Birmingham Evening Despatch on 13 may 1902.
About the play Sherlock Holmes at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, UK.
A Study in Thrills
How "Sherlock Holmes" Affects the Seasoned Playgoer.
"Sherlock Holmes," as played by Mr. William Gillette and his supporters, is sadly disturbing to the faith of playgoers in their own limitations.
One such playgoer — let him speak for himself — believed till last night that he could no longer experience the shocks of melodrama. For years he has withstood them all, from the artistic assaults of Sir Henry Irving down to the brutal bludgeoning of the feeblest villain who draws down the hisses of the "gods." In his presumption he imagined that nothing mortally melo- dramatic could do more than mildly interest him.
At the end of the third act of "Sherlock Holmes" (when the daring detective by his cool pluck and ingenuity has escaped from the horrible gas chamber) the misguided playgoer aforesaid felt all of a tremble — his heart was beating much more rapidly than was necessary — if his cheeks were not pale with excitement, they belied his feelings.
So frank a personal confession would hardly be justified if the penitent was not sure that hundreds of those who crowded the Prince of Wales Theatre last night would sympathise with him. Bold was the man and hard his heart who was not stirred and thrilled and all of a tremble! The disgusting point — to playgoers proud of their own limitations — was that all this emotion was excited for no logical, reasonable cause. "Sherlock Holmes" the play is as absolutely improbable as Sherlock Holmes the hero. It concerns itself with papers for which no sane detective would ever risk an unpleasant interview, and works itself out by means which belong to the enchanted region of the "Arabian Nights."
The seasoned playgoer is simply beguiled into this extraordinary excitement. His brain may rebel, but he succumbs like the fly to the spider or the mouse to the cat.
A Mesmeric Actor.
For Mr. Gillette carries plausibility to the verge of mesmerism. Few actors get such a grip of their audience. His methods are quaint in their simplicity; his voice smooth to monotony, his gestures utterly deficient in the athletic, or rather gymnastic, force which marks the inferior actor. He says the most foolish things in the tones of truth, he does the most absurd things in the most matter-of-fact way.
You believe in him implicitly before he has spoken half a dozen words. His enemies may be many and fierce, but you realise they are as dust under his feet. Your reputation as a seasoned playgoer-you place trustingly in his hands.
Stage management wellnigh perfect helps him considerably. So does Mr. W. L. Abingdon as Holmes's great rival, Professor Moriarty; Mr. Percy Lyndal as Holmes's great friend, Doctor Watson; Mr. Ralph Delmore as Holmes's great hostile amusement, James Larrabee — poor Larrabee! he is so consistently trampled upon that you can scarcely call him an enemy.
As Madge Larrabee, the dark female angel of the piece, Miss Alida Cortelyon acts with the air of a siren. As the white female angel, otherwise Alice Faulkner, Miss Amy Betteley displays that natural sweetness and unforced charm which render her one of the most delightful representatives of girlish ingenuity that the modern stage has to offer.
And the plot? Well, it's a shame to tell it. Why should other seasoned playgoers be forewarned and forearmed when one of their number has fallen unprepared? "Sherlock Holmes" will be enjoyed most by those who know least about it. More over, though there is a plot, it does not compare in importance with the episodes. Readers will have gathered that "Sherlock Holmes" cannot be described, even by the most soulful, as high dramatic art. But Mr. Gillette's acting can. So also the stage "fixings" and management.
