With some strong performances, and some good ideas (particularly in the staging and lighting), Malcolm Chewter’s debut production for SUP took us back to the louche decadence of 1920s America, and focused on the relationship between idle millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbour Nick Carraway, cousin to Daisy Buchanan, with whom Gatsby is in love.
Some beautiful costumes and high-energy Charleston dancing helped create the dizzy but at times claustrophobic atmosphere in which this tragedy played out, Jonathan Sketchley’s diffident Gatsby , appearing midway through the piece, contrasting sharply with April Napper’s excitable and effervescent Daisy. Paul Cresser’s Carraway featured strongly throughout as the storyteller, and Adelle Spindlove, as his on/off love Jordan Baker made a particularly impressive SUP debut.
As Daisy’s philandering husband Tom, Carl Browning was a big presence, and there was an enjoyable cameo from Adam Taussik as Gatsby’s lawyer Meyer Wolfsheim.
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