A Wonderful Stage Story
A Wonderful Stage Story is an article published in Cleveland Plain Dealer on 15 january 1901.
About the play Sherlock Holmes at the Opera House in Cleveland, OH (USA).
A Wonderful Stage Story
William Gillette Scores a Triumph at Opera House.
His Creation of Sherlock Holmes a Masterpiece.
"Sherlock Holmes."
- Sherlock Holmes ... William Gillette
- Doctor Watson ... Fred K. Truesdell
- John Forman ... Ruben Fax
- Sir Edward Leighton ... Harold Heaton
- Count Von Stahlburg ... Alfred S. Howard
- Professor Moriarty ... George Wessells
- James Larrabee ... Ralph Delmore
- Sidney Prince ... George Honey
- Alfred Bassick ... Henry Harmon
- Jim Craigin ... Thomas McGrath
- Thomas Leary ... Elwyn Eaton
- "Lightfoot" McTague ... Julius Weyms
- John ... Henry Koerper
- Parsons ... Soldene Powell
- Billy ... Henry McArdle
- Alice Faulkner ... Maude Fealy
- Mrs. Faulkner ... Jane Thomas
- Madge Larrabee ... Olive Oliver
- Therese ... Louise Collins
- Mrs. Smeedley ... Gertrude Dawes
Mr. William Gillette opened his engagement at the opera house last evening and was cordially greeted by a large and representative audience. For a full three hours he kept that audience at high tension, only allowing an occasional relax through the medium of a sprightly little bit of comedy leaking in here and there through the pulsing story of "The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner," which affords the basis for "Sherlock Holmes" of the stage. It is seldom that a play rivets the attention of an audience as does Sherlock Holmes, thanks to Mr. Gillette's art as an actor, his skill as a playwright and his due regard for detail and the essential fitness and reasonableness of things generally. And at the very start it must be recorded that the success of Sherlock Holmes is due solely and entirely to Mr. Gillette's art and his personality.
Mr. Gillette has the skill of making strong pulsing plays out of incidents and meager ones at that. "Sherlock Holmes" is his greatest play and his impersonation of the famous detective his best. In fact, it is a marvellous study. While the play is constructed upon what is called an "unpublished episode," otherwise a license given the playwright to draw the character from Doyle's story and work out the play to meet the requirements of the stage, it teems with incident and outrivals Doyle at his best. It has the quality of reaching for an audience and holding it until the finish. It might be said that the dramatic incidents follow each other too rapidly. In the hands of an incompetent company this quality would become exaggerated, but under the present conditions it only tends to grip the audience more tightly. And then again, with another player in the title role. the play would lose its charm and fall to the level of a melodrama poorly done. But Gillette, having drawn his character and having a consumate skill at his command, plays all the characters to the full limit, but holds them in check-nevertheless. The result is that it is so even, so forcible and so artistic in its treatment of character and incident, that one loses all thought of technicalities. The effect is one of intense admiration for the character of Holmes, a silent sorrow for his cocaine habit and a constant fear that he will not accomplish his ends. In the audience last evening there were many, no doubt. that had read "Sherlock Holmes" time and again; and many that had not. It mattered but little in either case. One found a new light on the detective, the other found thousands of little things to wonder at and admire.
The play is in four acts and while Dr. Doyle is given full credit in co-partnership with Mr. Gillette, it is easy to see that the suggestion came from the former and the practical work, the rare dramatic balance, from the latter. And by the way the Dr. Watson of the play and Dr. A. Conan Doyle bear a striking resemblance to each other in the play. To chronicle the inciden's of the play would be to condense Doyle's stories into a screed of say 10,000 words, and then add an apology for its incompleteness. From a technical point of view and from the view of an ordinary audience it is a glittering success. In these days there is a general lack of dramatic incident in the plays that solicit popular favor. In "Sherlock Holmes" there is almost an over-abundance of it.
Mr. Gillette's impersonation of Holmes is masterful. He has happily blended his own personality into the greatest detective of modern fiction. He conveys all that Doyle conceived and a great deal more. He is forcible and he is quiet and artistic. Gillette comes to the front in the smoking scenes and even those are made to express volumes. Gillette has indeed proved his title to first place as dramatist and player.
His supporting company is excellent throughout and includes among others, Maude Fealy, a young actress from whom great work is expected. The scenes and details were perfect. The audience was very prompt last evening. The applause was prolonged at intervals and at the end of the second act Mr. Gillette was recalled several times.
