An explosion of jazz-era decadence, this Gatsby is one wild party, old sport

THE GREAT GATSBY ★★★★
Playhouse, QPAC, until March 8

The Great Gatsby turned 100 last year, and the novel’s vision of an apocalyptic void at the heart of the American Dream seems to be reaching an apotheosis in 2026.

In the character of lovelorn bootlegger Gatsby squandering his wealth on debauched Long Island parties, it’s hard not to think of tech billionaires foisting their unhealthy products on a bewildered populace and using the proceeds to fund narcissistic schemes while the planet burns.

Not that this new stage adaptation, a co-production of Queensland Theatre and local independents Shake & Stir, indulges in any tricksy updating, apart from a few techno dance sequences. It’s rather a faithful, fast-moving rendition that explodes with Jazz Age decadence and is fleshed out with witty dialogue courtesy of co-adaptors Daniel Evans and Nelle Lee.

The human drama hits harder here than in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 version, but the film’s sensory overload is clearly a touchstone. Co-directors Evans and Nick Skubij offer enough sumptuous staging to equal the images that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece conjures in the mind’s eye, from orgiastic New York speakeasies to desolate dump the Valley of the Ashes. It’s a showcase for designer Christina Smith, whose sets and costumes conjure the 1920s with hyper-real brilliance.

Of particular note is the use of computer-controlled black screens that facilitate quick scene changes and concentrate the field of vision: at times the action seems to take place within a square silent-film ratio.

The endearingly nervy Ryan Hodson (Shake & Stir’s Fourteen) has the arduous task of playing Fitzgerald’s narrator, Nick Carraway, and is barely off stage for over two hours. Carraway is the bonds salesman and would-be writer who moves to Long Island after serving in the war and stumbles into the love triangle between his waifish cousin, Daisy (Jess Vickers), her bigoted and abusive husband, Tom Buchanan (Jeremiah Wray), and the mysterious millionaire Gatsby (Shiv Palekar).

Nick’s PTSD is made palpable by the presence of a shadowy soldier in a doughboy helmet dogging his heels. In the title role, pink-suited Palekar gets a flamboyant entrance befitting his iconic status, but the character’s flimsy aspirations are soon apparent in Palekar’s aptly boyish and tentative performance. (You can read what you like into the casting of an Indian-born actor as the object of the racist villain’s scorn.) As his old-money nemesis Buchanan, the towering Wray is a proto-MAGA bully, but an equally lost soul: having played the creature in Shake & Stir’s Frankenstein, Wray has a way with piteous monsters.

The production brings two of the female supporting roles to life impressively. As the pansexual lady golfer Jordan Baker, Libby Munro is the very image of a 1920s garconne, and her banter with the smitten Nick, daring him to take a “big swing”, is priceless. Nelle Lee plays Buchanan’s reckless mistress, Myrtle Wilson, and imbues her with Cyndi Lauper vibes. Musical theatre star Loren Hunter, meanwhile, augments Guy Webster’s excellent score with powerful renditions of period songs like I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes).

Evans’ emerging vision for Queensland Theatre seems to be as a timely interpreter of familiar IP. (His triumphant staging of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men last year sadly dovetailed with the death of the film version’s director, Rob Reiner.) This makes him a kindred spirit to Brisbane independent success story Shake & Stir, adaptors of everything from Dickens to Dahl, and future collaborations seem like a done deal. Can you repeat the past? Sure you can, old sport.

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