First performance 28 September 1978 Adapted from The Sign of the Four | Playwright Paul Giovanni | |
Adaptations The Crucifer of Blood (1991) Similar Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: The Musi, The Singular Life of Alb, Red Eye of Love, Benefactors | ||
The Crucifer of Blood is a play by Paul Giovanni that is adapted from the Arthur Conan Doyle novel The Sign of the Four. It depicts the character Irene St. Claire hiring the detective Sherlock Holmes to investigate the travails that her father and his three compatriots suffered over a pact made over a cursed treasure chest in colonial India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
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Broadway production
The play, directed by the author, opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on September 28, 1978 and ran for 236 performances.
The production was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Giovanni for Best Direction of a Play, and won the award for Roger Morgan's lighting design. It also received Drama Desk Awards for Morgan as well as for John Wulp's scenic design.
Cast
London production
The play, directed by the author, opened in London at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on March 15, 1979 and ran for 397 performances. Denis Lill who played Dr. Watson, would later go on to play Inspector Bradstreet in Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series).
Cast
Los Angeles production
The play, directed by the author, premiered in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre in the Los Angeles Music Center on December 5, 1980 and ran through January 17, 1981. A notable feature of this production was that Jeremy Brett, who later became one of the most famous portrayers of Sherlock Holmes, played Dr. Watson.
Cast
Film
The play was filmed for Turner Network Television and first broadcast on November 4, 1991. The cast featured Charlton Heston as Holmes, Richard Johnson as Watson, John Castle as St. Clair, Edward Fox as Ross, Simon Callow as Inspector Lestrade, and Susannah Harker as Irene St. Claire, and was directed by Heston's son Fraser Clarke Heston.