In 2022 it was 100 years since F Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby threw his lavish parties in the infamous tale, The Great Gatsby.
Set in post-war Paris and Jazz Age New York, our Senior Joint Production drew on the The Lost Generation context of the novel's genesis as well as telling the tragic story of Gatsby (Jayden Luhar), a self-made millionaire, focused upon his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan (Felicity Field), a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth. Nick Carraway (Billy Burrows), a Yale University graduate from the Midwest, was our guide through the show. Nick recounted the events of the fateful summer of 1922.
The novel was adapted for the stage by our Foundation Director of Creative Learning, Naomi Lord. Writer Willa Cather commented that 'the world broke in half in 1922 or thereabouts' and the 1920s was without doubt a decade of distinctive qualities. The show considered the state of the world in 1922 and left an open question, 'what has changed in the intervening years?'
In 1922 the world had just emerged from a war that had killed millions and a global pandemic - the Spanish Flu - that had killed tens of millions more. The era was also known for excess, as well as relaxation of and rapid change in social politics and behaviours. In 1922 the Ottoman Empire fell, the British Empire was showing signs of decay, the USSR was founded and Mussolini and his Blackshirts began their march to Rome.
An ensemble cast variously played bootleggers, flappers, brokers, suffragists, war veterans and the ‘men and girls [who] came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars’ of Gatsby’s parties. Jayden presented a Gatsby as a haunting presence, never quite able to access the society of the high life his parties conjured, alongside Felicity’s saccharine and self-serving Daisy. Billy Burrow’s handling of Nick provided a wonderful arc to the show – an astute and accomplished picture of a character coming of age as illusions of grandeur shattered around him. They were supported by excellent character presentations from Alex McKie as Tom Buchanan, Ilham Nagi as Jordan Baker, Cameron Geskell as George Wilson, Molly Bell as Myrtle Wilson, Ella Worsley as Maya Wolfsheim, Tom Griffiths as Michaelis, Ila Stephenson as the Spirit of the Age, Elliot Rigby as Gertrude Stein, David Chow as Charles Ritz, Thea Littlefair as Sherwood Anderson, Eve Blackmore as Klipspringer and Elizabeth Stanton, Yaqeen Alkaabi as Catherine, Fletcher Mellor Brook and Bea Foy as the McKees, George Houghton as Owl Eyes, Safa Karim as Mrs Gatz, Amelie Harrison as Senator Brandeis and Sam Entwistle as a key witness to Myrtle’s death.
The cast presented the joy and the freedoms of the 1920s alongside the unsettling prescience of Fitzgerald's tale of boom before bust - the Wall Street Crash arrived in 1929 and the '30s rapidly descended into World War 2.
The show was delivered in cabaret-style in an immersive Jazz Age environment, opening in Europe and hopping across to the USA with audiences dressed to impress in 1920s attire. The action was accompanied by live music from our Gatsby Band led by Head of Boys' Division Music, Miss Sherry who also arranged the music.
Congratulations to the pupils and staff who presented this ambitious piece of theatre. Thank you to our Parents' Associations for presenting refreshments and dressing the Senior Library in true Gatsby style.
