Do we need another adaptation of the Great American Novel? That’s the question The Great Gatsby attempts to answer.
The party is already underway as the audience enters. Cast members mill around the seats and fill the theatre with an indistinct stream of chatter. This adaptation’s unique selling point is that it’s “told through shifting viewpoints,” as different characters step out of the scene to narrate their perspectives. It only takes a few monologues before this mode of storytelling weakens the atmosphere of mystery that made the original novel so charming.
Part of this could be due to the show’s limited runtime, but the pacing was uncomfortable. Scenes felt like they were written just to recite iconic lines from the novel, only to strip away the context that made the lines iconic in the first place. Yet, because the whole production is structured like a Gatsby highlight reel, it loses all tension, and scenes fall flat without real stakes or suspense.
Despite this, the acting is very effective. Jay Gatsby (Oliver Gardner) is convincingly charming and Myrtle (Chloe Porter-Twigg) puts on a particularly standout performance. The costumes and choreography are equally as polished, and delivers on the show’s promise to evoke an “immersive party atmosphere,” but it is an atmosphere that relies on the audience’s knowledge of Fitzgerald’s existing world; it does not create one from scratch.
The Great Gatsby is a production that only works if you’re already familiar with the novel, and even if you are, it doesn’t bring anything novel to the original story. Even worse, it seems to reduce it to a caricature of itself.
We may need another adaptation of The Great Gatsby, but it’s certainly not this one. If anything, it proves Fitzgerald’s point: we will forever be seduced by the glitz and glamour of the Jazz Age and remain blind to its underbelly.
The Great Gatsby ran from 5 August to 15 August at Temple at C Aquila. Learn more about the production here.
Phot images provided by The Great Gatsby Press Team.
