The Sign of the Cross (play)
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The Sign of the Cross is an 1895 four-act historical tragedy, by Wilson Barrett.[2] The plot resembles the novel Quo Vadis of those same years, as an unofficial adaptation of it, yet Barrett never acknowledged this.
It was originally produced at the Grand Opera House, St. Louis, Missouri on 28 March 1895 (with Maud Jeffries as Mercia).[3] It was first presented on Broadway at the Knickerbocker Theatre in late 1895. It was then presented in England, with great success.
It was the basis for the 1932 film adaptation directed by Cecil B. DeMille: the first DeMille sound film with a religious theme.
Contents
Plot
Much as in Quo Vadis, Marcus Superbus, a Roman patrician under Nero, falls in love with a young woman (Mercia) and converts to Christianity for her. As in Quo Vadis, Poppea, Nero's wife, is in unrequited lust for Marcus. At the end, Mercia and Marcus sacrifice their lives in the arena to the lions. This ending is in complete contrast to Quo Vadis, in which Marcus Vinicius (not Marcus Superbus) and Lygia (not Mercia) survive and presumably live happily ever after, and Nero and Poppea are the ones who die.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Protest Against a Talkie: "The Sign of the Cross", The Citizen, (Tuesday, 31 January 1933), p.8.
- ↑ See Barrett (1896).
- ↑ Wilson Barrett’s New Play, Kansas City Daily Journal, (Friday, 29 March 1895), p.2.
References
- Anonymous, "The history of "The Sign of the Cross": A Play by Wilson Barrett", The Idler, Vol.9, No.2, (March 1896), pp.262-276.
- Wilson Barrett's Arrival: Proposed New Productions: Story of a Famous Play, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Monday, 6 December 1897), pp.5-6.
- R.W.B., "Stage Prejudice Broken: Wilson Barrett's 'Sign of the Cross'", The Age Literary Section, (Saturday, 24 January 1948), p.6.
- Barrett, Wilson, The Sign of the Cross, J.B. Lippincott Company, (Philadelphia), 1896: Barrett's novelized version of his play.
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