“SHERLOCK HOLMES.”

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4824, 29 November 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

“SHERLOCK HOLMES.”

Tho New Zealand tour of Mir J. 0. Williamson's English and American Dramatic Company will be commenced at Dunedin on Boxing Night. Tho combination will be one of the strongest that has ever visited this colony, the "star" being tho clever American actor, Mr Cuyler Hastings. The repertoire of the company will include “Sherlock Holmes," “If I were King,” and “Secret Service." In criticising Mr Hastings's first appearance at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, on the loth September last, tho

“Ago” says;—Hie first appearance at this theatre on Saturday evening in a skilfully constructed drama by Mr William Gillette, nu American actor and playwright, founded upon ono of the adventures of Sir A. Conan Doylo’s Sherlock Holmes, stamped him as an artist of exceptional ability, who brings a well trained intellect to bear upon tho analysis and exposition of a character of abnormal sagacity and penetration. Tho piece itself is necessarily a sensational ono; tho pivot upon which it hinges being the efforts of a gang, or rather a powerful combination, of scoundrels, professional and otherwise, to obtain possession of certain documents of extreme value for purposes of blackmail; and tho splendid ingenuity and resolute determination with which tho detective foils the desperate devices of tho conspirators to gain their own ends and to destroy him. It is a conflict between brains and inflexibility of purpose on tho one hand, and craft, violence and numerical strength on tho other; one mSn pitted against an organised force, with abundant resources at its command, and patiently countermining and ultimately defeating his opponents. Tno dramatic incidents‘of the story are developed with the ingenuity of a writer experienced in stage craft; and from the days of Mr William Shakespeare, actor and stage manager, to those of Colley Cibber, and from Cibber' to Boucicault, the playwright who has been also a player has been most successful in the art of constructing pieces in such a way as to excite and sustain tho interest of an audience in its progress. “Sherlock Holmes" is a drama which possesses this quality in an eminent degree, It seizes upon the attention of the spectators of the performance from tho first scene, and never relaxes its hold upon them until the curtain falls on tho fourth and final act. Nor were the intervals between each sufficiently long on Saturday evening to allow of that attention being distracted or diverted. So absorbed, indeed, were tho pulbic in the unfolding of the drama that very fe» persons, comparatively speaking, left , their seats at any time. Most of those present appeared to be eager for _ the opening of a new chapter in so exciting a romance, and would have become very impatient if there any unnecessary delay in its continuance. “Intensity of feeling combined with’ quietude and self-restraint in its expression, are the prominent characteristics of Mr Hastings’s acting in the part of. Sherlock Holmes. He has rarely occasion to raise his voice above a monotone,_ and ho is most impressive when his delivery is most subdued. An Elizabethan writer has said that "passions are likened best to floods and streams; tho shallow murmur. but the deep are dumb," and Mr Hastings seeing to be fully alive to this truth in the interpretation of a character which derives all its strength from tho complete victory which the intellect has obtained over the emotions: These he uniformly exhibits as obedient to-an imperious self-repression. Tho will is supreme, and the passions are its bond servants; and if, as is now and then the case, a flash of anger breaks forth from, tho detective, it is as brief as it is sudden. and only serves to heighten by contrast tho unruffled serenity of his habitual demeanour, and the deliberate calmness of tone and icy coldness of speech which have become, by practice and or deliberative purpose, a second nature with him. Always alert, circumspect, prescient of impending danger, incapable of fear, ready for any emergency and confident and imperturbable when it arrives, Mr Hastings interprets the creation of tho novelist so as to induce you to accept him aa a possible personage; although you may demur to his reality when reading the book. A.s presented in a concrete form by tho actor, he becomes a highly interesting subject of psycholoeiagl analysis, and yon recognise with pleasure the care, intelligence and insight which its representative must have bestowed upon it in order to' embody it with such constant verisimilitude. Perhaps the most effective scene in the drama is that in which Holmes and Professor Moriarty, the directive head of a great criminal organisation, meet in the house of the former; and the colloquy which then arises between a would-be assassin and his intended victim was listened to and watched with the deepest interest and anxiety by a crowded theatre.

When the curtain fell, Mr Hastings was called three times before it to receive the enthusiastic plaudits of tho audience; and the same compliment was awarded to him at the close of the third act. In fact, that gentleman has leapt into public favour at a bound; and has shown that, while this is often secured by very questionable means upon the stage, yet a close adherence to nature, sincerity of purpose, simplicity of artistic methods and fidelity to a high standard of acting will suffice for the accomplishment of a genuine success by the artist who se<s before himself high aims, and is resolved to reach them without condescending to play to the gallery. # In the production of the piece Mr Hastings has introduced some agreeable novelties in connection with tho rise and fall of the curtain; and one very pretty effect at the close of the last act, when, in tho midst of total darkness, two faces only are seen, illuminated by a rev of golden light, which resembles an aureole, and is° intended, jjerhaps, to symbolise the apotheosis of love.