Chapter 2 Scene 1.1

Richard Rassndyll goes to the theatre

Chapter 2 Scene 1.1

At the turn of the century an American Actor / Director William Gillette acquired the theatricals rights to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. From memory, Conan Doyle wanted the cash to build a new house. The play was a huge success and played for many years on and off in various forms. Gillette gave Holmes several characteristics that have stuck with the character. For example, one is the curved brier pipe which meant that his face was more visible to the audience. Also, it is says that Americans have a slightly different idea of Holmes because of |Gillettes performance. They see him as a bit more of a dandy that do the British.









It opened at the Lyceum Theatre - shown here as it is today. It transferred to at some point to the Duke of York's Theatre where, in my mind, it is the setting for my scene.








The picture on the right is, again, how the theatre looks today.

Also, although he makes no appearance in my story, I think it is the British actor,  H. A. Sainstbury who has taken over the lead role at the time of my story. He was the rea;l ife mentor of the young actor who does appear in the story in the role of Billy the Messenger Boy. Billy was never named in the books but Gillette's production ensured that in all subsequent films the name stuck to the part.

Needless to say, it was a bit of excitement for me to see that photographs of Billy are still to be seen on the Web. Here he is as he appeared on stage and in the photo he presumably gave to fans.

My character, Richard Rassendyll plays a key role in scene and here is another possible likeness of him.  It has only just occurred to me that this is an actor famous for playing Holmes today. Also here is a picture, I don't know of whom, that might be like my Eliza was when she played the part. In the play the heroine role was based on Conan Doyle's Irene Adler but was named Alice Faulkner. At least Eliza didn't take her clothes off for the part as a more recent Irene Adler did. (Very effectively too!)