Sherlock Holmes A Drama In Four Acts

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) was an English writer best known for his detective stories about Sherlock Holmes. “Sherlock Holmes: A Drama in Four Acts” is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on several stories about the world-famous detective.

The classic Victorian melodrama. All the intrigue and suspense of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective stories comes to life in this classic theatrical adaptation. Originally produced on Broadway in 1899, Sherlock Holmes battles his archenemy Moriarty while he tries to defeat a notorious blackmail plot. Hailed by the press at the time as "thrilling," the play was an enormous success here and abroad. Playwright William Gillette is credited with giving Holmes his trademark curved pipe and his deerstalker cap as well as inventing the line "Elementary, my dear Watson.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. His works also include fantasy and science fiction, as well as plays, romances, non-fiction and historical novels. “A Drama in Four Acts” is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on several stories about the world-famous detective.

Sherlock Holmes premiered at the Star Theatre in Buffalo in 1899 after a copyright performance in England. It then toured Rochester and Syracuse, and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania before playing at Broadway's Garrick Theater in November of 1899. Gillette's most significant contributions to the theater were in devising realistic stage settings and special sound and lighting effects, which he applied lavishly in Sherlock Holmes. The play was an instant success and, after Broadway, toured nationally, returned to England where it had started, and was produced in other Countries such as Australia, Sweden, and South Africa.

Sherlock Holmes takes to the stage in four entertaining play scripts written between 1899 and 1921 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette. Even though Sherlock Holmes had fallen to his supposed death at the culmination of 'The Final Problem' in December 1893, it proved very difficult to keep the great detective down as this collection of theatrical play scripts proves. Presented are: SHERLOCK HOLMES - A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS (1899, by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle); THE PAINFUL PREDICAMENT OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1905, attributed to William Gillette); THE SPECKLED BAND - AN ADVENTURE OF MISTER SHERLOCK HOLMES (1910, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and THE CROWN DIAMOND - AN EVENING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES (1921, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). This collection also contains an introduction written by Paul Stuart Hayes, the author of REQUIEM FOR SHERLOCK HOLMES, which sets the scene for Sherlock Holmes' stage debut and focuses on each of the four productions presented in this volume.