Sherlock Holmes (1976 play)
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Sherlock Holmes |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | 1976 |
| Date(s): | |
| Medium: | stage play |
| Country of Origin: | U.S. |
| External Links: | |
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Sherlock Holmes was a 1976 stage play starring Leonard Nimoy.
The play was originally concieved in the 1890s by William Gillette (a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conon Doyle), an American actor and playwright, who became famous for playing the title character more than 1,300 times on stage over a span of 30 years, in a silent movie adaption, and on radio twice. Gillette's use of the "deerstalker cap" and "curved pipe" became iconic Sherlock Holmes symbols.
By 1976, some of the play's language and characterization felt a bit out of date, and Leonard Nimoy decided that camp was the way to portray Holmes. In an interview, Nimoy said:
What we're doing [...] is a kind of reverent sendup of the whole Holmes thing. I don't think this material could play otherweise. For instance, there's a scene in which Holmes discovers a con man has tied up a damsel and stuffed her in a closet . When I open the closet and see her, I turn to the con man and say, "You contemptible scoundrel!" Now, in the 1890s when the play was written, that would have been a dramatic moment. But today it's camp. Everyone laughs. It's a fun kind of play.
[snipped]
He's an asocial man, hardly your average 9-to-5 worker with a family. Instead, he's chosen a very special kind of life, and he has very little respect for most of the people around him who are also involved in his profession. He's an outsider, in so many ways -- particularly in his relationships, with women. Holmes is very much an alien, all right, and I felt that I could understand him the same way I understood Spock." [1]
Further Reading
References
- ^ from a fan's review of the play in Enterprise Incidents #2 (1976)