Promise of the Week
Promise of the Week is an article published in St. Louis Globe-Democrat on 30 december 1900.
About the play Sherlock Holmes at the Olympic Theater, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Promise of the Week
WM. GILLETTE AS "SHERLOCK HOLMES" — OLYMPIC.
"Sherlock Holmes," Dr. Conan Doyle's hero of a thousand difficult problems; the detective who is the ideal of all English readers, has been incarnated by William Gillette in the play he has made out of Dr. Doyle's stories, and which will be seen at the Olympic Theater for a week, beginning Monday night. It is said that by lending to Dr. Doyle's conception all of the actor-author's acknowledged ability and talent of impersonation Mr. Gillette has created a character that is as real as it is unique, and as unique as it has become popular. The plan ran at the Garrick Theater, New York, for thirty-six consecutive weeks last season, and after a short season in this country is to be taken to Sir Henry Irving's Lyceum Theater, London, for a run. In New York the play became the vogue and Sherlock Holmes scored a great success. The action is heightened by a perfection of scenic and lighting effects seldom if ever equaled. Some reviewers have declared that Mr. Gillette exercises hypnotic influence over his audience, and all who see the play are surprised that the time of presentation seems so short, so absorbed are they. The story of the play is founded on a hitherto unpublished episode in the life of the great detective, showing his connection with the strange case of "Miss Faulkner." At the death of her sister the young woman obtains possession of certain papers and photographs which compromise the scion of a noble house, who, realizing the danger that menaces him through their existence, commissions "Holmes" to get possession of them. In the meantime, "Miss Faulkner" has fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous man and his wife, who want the papers for blackmailing purposes, and who hold her a prisoner in their London home. Here "Holmes" finds her and the papers. He falls in love with the young lady and allows her to keep the papers. The blackmailers call to their assistance "Prof. Moriarity," a "high caliph of crime," who enters into the scheme with great enthusiasm, born of a hatred for "Holmes." The chief interest of the play centers in the struggle for supremacy between these past masters.
