The Crown Diamond: An Evening With Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle had written an adaptation of “The Speckled Band” as a play in 1910, and it had been successful, with performances in Great Britain, the US, Sweden and France. His other play, lesser known and much less successful, was called “The Crown Diamond” and was converted into a short story.

Dennis Neilsen-Terry played Holmes, with R.V. Taylour as Watson.

Unlike “The Speckled Band,” this was not adapted from an existing story. It was first performed at the Bristol Hippodrome on May 2,1921 as a trial run. It moved to London and opened there on May 16, 1921. It lasted through August, and then was shelved. It was never performed again, and never was produced in the US.

But the “Crown Diamond” was to have a longer life in a different form. In October 1921, “The Mazarin Stone” appeared in The Strand. Doyle had taken parts of his play and turned them into that story, which can be found in “The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.” “The Mazarin Stone” has made many “worst Holmes stories” lists. Jack Tray, in “The Published Apocrypha,” states that it was an even worse play.

Adrian Conan Doyle has stated that he believes it was written in the early 1900’s. Gillette’s play, “Sherlock Holmes” had a few different endings. One that was discarded involved a wax bust and an air gun. That theme can be found in “The Crown Diamond.” However, it is in “The Story of the Empty House,” from 1903, that we find those elements in a Holmes story. He wrote the play, transferred the Moran parts to “The Empty House,” then set it on the shelf for about twenty years. He produced the play, it was not a success, and he took the remaining elements and transferred them to the “Mazarin Stone.”

If that’s not true, and it was written around 1920, one wonders why. Doyle had already written a good play and Holmes was as popular as ever. Why would he write and produce an inferior play, then quickly give up on it and make it a story for The Strand. There is no explanation for that.

Another indicator it was written around 1900 is Watson’s role. He barely has one and is sent away at the moment of danger. Gillette’s play did that as well. It’s hard to imagine Doyle putting Watson so far in the background and writing him out of the play in 1920. But in 1900, those ideas would not have seemed so strange.

Regardless, there is no evidence this play has been produced in almost eighty years.