Tag Archives: F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

★★★

St Paul’s Church

THE GREAT GATSBY at St Paul’s Church

★★★

The Great Gatsby

“Tethered Wits do deliver with what is clearly a grand night out”

 

There are few novels of which both the opening and closing lines are instantly recognisable, even by those who haven’t read the book. F Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is probably at the top of that list. So famous now that ‘Gatsby’ has entered the English language and taken on a life of its own, with meanings that have often drifted away from its origins. ‘Tethered Wits’, the Cotswold based open air touring company, have grabbed the title and are respectfully putting it back where it belongs, with their faithful and solid interpretation of the iconic novel. With just five actors in the cast, they focus on the characters. A group of flawed, tragic and careless people caught in the American Dream. Simultaneously chasing it and trapped by it. “The Great Gatsby” is not all about the parties.

Having said that, it opens with a party. After sampling the cocktails in the grounds of St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, we are now seated under Gatsby’s summer sky, in concentric semicircles, as though at a wedding. After a burst of trombone and saxophone, Nick Carraway (Oliver Stockley) introduces himself and invites us into the story. Told through Carraway’s eyes in the novel, Stockley is now unwittingly the master of ceremonies; a little bewildered, slightly goofy, but with a world-weary wisdom drawn from hindsight.

The other four performers play many parts. They each have their principal role, but with deft use of the smallest prop or costume accessory, they waltz in and out of the minor characters. Sometimes fleeting, but each integral to steering the story to its inevitable end. Being so familiar with the novel it is difficult to say for sure; but newcomers (where have you been?) may be thrown into confusion occasionally. But let’s not forget that when the novel was published in 1925 it was generally panned, and Fitzgerald himself complained that “of all the reviews… not one had the slightest idea what the book was about”. A knee-jerk and self-inflated reaction, perhaps, but it gives you licence to occasionally lose track, so don’t worry.

Emma Hodgkinson’s pacey adaptation covers the key plotlines, and keeping Nick Carraway as the narrator allows the beauty of Fitzgerald’s eloquent prose to remain largely intact. Whenever it gets too close to exposition, the players interrupt and take over. As Gatsby, Rory Dulku – despite the requisite (though always misjudged) matinee idol looks – captures the nervousness and social awkwardness of this obsessive personality. He also plays George Wilson, the down-trodden garage owner. It is a risky doubling that could prove problematic, but Dulku successfully compartmentalises them. Olivia Willis as Daisy Buchanan and Amelia Stanimeros as Jordan Baker confidently twist through the story, almost like a triple-threat double act. With their background in dance, they both add rhythm and scale to the party scenes. Stanimeros also plays Myrtle Wilson, the tragic mistress of Tom Buchanan. Deakin Van Leeuwen’s Tom is an imposing, bullying figure – a touch too thuggish which conceals the innate sense of privilege. The showdown over Daisy between him and Gatsby, however, is impressive. Dulku’s reaction (forged by his facial expressions alone) when Van Leeuwen clearly touches a nerve is pretty spot on.

Overall, the production treads a safe path. The comedy is hinted at when required and the tragedy is faithfully represented (you all know it ends badly, right?). The darkness doesn’t quite shine through though (I’m sure that’s an oxymoron of which Fitzgerald would approve). We never fully appreciate the price these people have paid for chasing unattainable dreams. The “future that year by year recedes before us”. Fitzgerald’s novel is ultimately a sad and melancholic meditation on the lost promise of the American Dream. But – hey – some razzamatazz is called for, and it is what people expect when they think of Gatsby. Tethered Wits do deliver with what is clearly a grand night out. Maybe not as grand as one of Gatsby’s parties, but who has Gatsby’s budget these days?

 


THE GREAT GATSBY at St Paul’s Church

Reviewed on 17th August 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Cosmic Xposure

 

 

 

More outdoor reviews:

 

La Cage Aux Folles | ★★★★★ | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre | August 2023
Annie Get Your Gun | ★★★★ | Lavender Theatre | July 2023
Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-Written | ★★ | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre | June 2023
Once On This Island | ★★★★ | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre | May 2023

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
★★★★★

Southwark Playhouse

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 17th May 2019

★★★★★

 

“a thoroughly fascinating, moving and evocative piece of theatre”

 

Written in 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is just one of many short stories that comprise his “Tales of the Jazz Age” collection; though undoubtedly one of the better-known. Fitzgerald was inspired by Mark Twain who lamented the fact that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end. Fitzgerald tried to turn this idea on its head, but instead discovered that youth and old age are mirrors of each other. A witty and insightful satire it tells the story of Benjamin Button who is born an old man and mysteriously begins ageing backwards. At the beginning of his life he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life, falls in love, goes to war, has children, goes to school and eventually, as his mind begins to devolve again, returns to the care of his nurses.

A difficult tale to categorise, but at its heart it is a fantasy. A fairy-tale. A love story underpinned by a mysterious curse. Writer Jethro Compton with composer Darren Clark have embraced that heart and transplanted it into a Cornish folk tale to produce a thoroughly fascinating, moving and evocative piece of theatre. The story is told in a time-honoured fashion by the five characters, washed up on the rugged Cornish coast. And the music emerges naturally from the ebb and flow of the narrative as though one cannot exist without the other. This extends to the five cast – all master story tellers and multi-instrumentalists – who perform, move, act and sing together as one. You can hear it in their harmonies which are breathtakingly beautiful.

Whatever liberties have been taken with Fitzgerald’s story, in my mind, only improve on the original. Spanning most of the twentieth century, the epic structure fits perfectly into the small-town Cornish setting. This is ‘Under Milk Wood’ meets ‘Sliding Doors’ as we are shown how the smallest chain of events can change a life irrevocably – for better or for worse. The show is a conjuring trick where seventy years are crammed into two hours and over forty characters into the five actors onstage. With Chi-San Howard’s choreography it is a master class in dexterity.

When not behind the piano, guitar, accordion, drum kit, Matthew Burns and Joey Hickman have the lion’s share of the roles. Meanwhile, James Marlowe completely nails the unenviable task of portraying Benjamin Button reversing from sixty to twenty with an outstanding performance (the very old and the very young Benjamin are puppets forged from the flotsam and jetsam of the Cornish beach). Like a broken clock that tells the right time twice a day, he finds true love twice in his life. With the same person: Philippa Hogg and Rosalind Ford play respectively (among a myriad other characters of course) the young Elowen, whom he marries and the older Elowen with whom he is reunited; and it is these two who steal the show and provide the most haunting and beautiful moments. And with Ford’s cello, Hogg’s violin and their combined voices, I defy anyone to remain dry eyed throughout the evening.

This is quite a sensational piece of musical theatre that takes a curious tale and adds its very own eccentricities. The only minor quibble is that it is just a bit too long, but that said, the magic sustains from start to finish. Or from finish to start, whichever way you want to look at it.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography courtesy Jethro Compton Productions

 


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Southwark Playhouse until 8th June

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
The Trench | ★★★ | October 2018
Seussical The Musical | ★★★★ | November 2018
The Funeral Director | ★★★★★ | November 2018
The Night Before Christmas | ★★★ | November 2018
Aspects of Love | ★★★★ | January 2019
All In A Row | ★★ | February 2019
Billy Bishop Goes To War | ★★★ | March 2019
The Rubenstein Kiss | ★★★★★ | March 2019
Other People’s Money | ★★★ | April 2019
Oneness | ★★★ | May 2019

 

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