Gatz review – the Great Gatsby performed in eight and a half hours of attentive, immersive joy
A man enters his office in the morning, finds his computer on the fritz and, after a few attempts to turn it on and off again, comes across a copy of F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby,So he starts to read and when his colleagues enter they find themselves taking on the characters, and soon the novel unfolds around us, word by word,The New York theatre company Elevator Repair Service has produced a work that is not quite adaptation – given it doesn’t really adapt the novel at all – but that is utterly transfixing nonetheless,Following a keen interest in non-dramatic texts, the company wanted to see what would happen when a powerful literary work was read and performed in its entirety,The result is both strange and strangely familiar.
It feels sometimes like listening to the greatest audio book ever read, or attending a live recording of a particularly effective radio play.Eventually it’s as if the audience has gathered at the foot of their favourite primary school teacher while they read us their favourite book.It’s eight and a half hours of completely attentive, fully immersive joy.Gatz establishes a narrative model – actors toggling between their office personas and those of the novel’s characters – but then undermines or upends it at every turn.One performer inexplicably carries that faulty computer on and off stage all night, as if he’s a dodgy repairman with a side hustle.
The sound technician on the side of the stage steps suddenly into the action, sometimes as a peripheral character but other times as a surly sound technician.A googly eyed puppet is briefly employed to play a child.Just as we begin to think we understand the rules, the production changes them.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningIt’s a conceit that probably wouldn’t work – or at least would work very differently – with any other novel.Gatsby is lauded for its exquisite prose, and its narrator, Nick Carraway (Scott Shepherd), is an ideal guide; sharply observant, deeply compassionate and multifaceted, he plays a key role in the action but also remains aloof and dispassionate.
As an audience surrogate, he’s indispensable.Shepherd is staggering in the role.His vocal cadences, the suppleness and surgical precision of his delivery, the urbane wit and casual profundities, all combine to astonishing effect, so that the words both drift by in pleasurable phrasal ribbons and land with devastating accuracy.For the most part kindly and avuncular, Shepherd also mines a serious vein of disgust and moral torpor.It’s a Nick Carraway for the ages.
Other actors also make memorable contributions, from Jim Fletcher’s seriously against-type Gatsby – young and impossibly handsome in the novel, bald and over 60 on stage – to Lucy Taylor’s brittle and damaged Daisy.Frank Boyd and Laurena Allan are excellent as the tragically manipulated George and Myrtle Wilson, and Susie Sokol makes a hilariously droll Jordan Baker, the professional golfer with a penchant for lies, liquor and licentiousness.John Collins directs the ensemble with complete control of mood and pacing.Time and money are the two key processes working on the characters of Fitzgerald’s novel, and this production underlines them in intriguing ways.In keeping with the idea of the “future that year by year recedes before us”, Louisa Thompson’s office setting is oddly anachronistic – not just shabby, it seems to belong to a recognisable but retrograde era, full of typewriters and fake wood panelling.
And while the milieu is ostensibly ultra-wealthy, Colleen Werthmann’s costumes are decidedly low-rent.The production is more interested in challenging the text rather than simply illustrating it, in mining the spaces between the theatrical and the novelistic.Characters seem to hear and understand what Shepherd is reading, an impossibility in the world of the novel but curiously effective on stage.And the fact that Gatz is performed by a cast of “employees” in an almost scuzzy working environment, undercuts the world of privilege the novel is interrogating.Gatz manages simultaneously to be exceedingly deferential and thrillingly subversive.
The Great Gatsby might not carry the same cultural weight in Australia as it does in the US, where it exposes something awful about the national character, but this production makes a case for it as a universal warning.The “careless people” who smash things and move on have only become more venal and more powerful, and Nick Carraway’s vigilant humanism, his sobering and poetic sensibility, reads like a benediction not just for a lost age but for our future.Gatz runs until 15 March at Her Majesty’s theatre, as part of the Adelaide festival
Light red wines for spring drinking
Can wine ever be good for you? The question has surely occurred to most of us after a night on the chȃteau de migraine, especially if we’ve read the increasingly dire warnings on alcohol consumption. Still, as with chocolate, a lot depends on what type of alcohol you drink. After all, a 90% cocoa solids situation is probably going to do less harm than, say, a family tub of Celebrations, and, while all alcohol is, I hate to break it to you, alcohol, there are definitely better choices you can make.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for risotto in bianco | A kitchen in Rome
Parmigiano reggiano, grana padano, lodigiano, trentingrana and the other members of the grana-type cheese family (there are many, and all are worth seeking out) are far from cheap. Which is why it is important to use every last bit, including the rind with the last few millimetres of cheese still attached. That functions as a sort of highly flavoured and fatty stock cube that can be added to soups and stews. The best place to keep your precious rinds is in a plastic bag or airtight container in the freezer, which also preserves flavour and stops them drying out, until they’re pulled out and added directly to whatever needs a boost, or to make one of the nicest, most delicately flavoured and cheesy broths, which in turn makes a lovely risotto.I have written about risotto many times here, with each version a new favourite, and providing lessons in a dish that, regardless of how much I learn and practise, I am always chasing: the right proportions of rice to broth, as well as a pleasing consistency and texture
‘Highly problematic behavior’: Noma residency in LA starts with PR crisis
It was always going to be an indulgence for René Redzepi, the Danish-Albanian chef of Noma fame, to bring his exacting, innovative vision of haute cuisine to Los Angeles and spend several weeks tickling the palates of well-heeled diners at a hilltop estate once dubbed “the most beautiful home in Hollywood”.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The timing has certainly been unfortunate, since the US is now fighting a destabilizing war in the Middle East and food prices are climbing so steeply that many ordinary Americans can no longer afford to eat at McDonald’s, much less contemplate the counterintuitive delights of tacinga cactus, bougainvillea petals, mealworms and giant tuna eyes
Before sunrise: while Sydney sleeps, suhoor meals attract a lively social scene during Ramadan
Suhoor – the pre-dawn meal – is typically shared at home. But in Sydney customers also queue outside food trucks, restaurants and cafes with extended trading hoursIt’s just after midnight in an industrial courtyard in Auburn in Sydney’s west and a glow of string lights and the constant sizzle of a grill signal one of Ramadan’s newest late-night rituals. A food truck specialising in halal steak sandwiches has attracted a small crowd and a queue begins to form.The rest of the city is largely asleep but here the courtyard hums with life as young Muslims arrive in waves after evening taraweeh prayers, chatting and checking their phones as the clock edges closer to suhoor – the pre-dawn meal eaten during Ramadan before the day’s fast begins.Inside The Meat Up, a Lebanese husband-and-wife duo move quickly over the grill
How to use up limp herbs in a flavoured butter – recipe | Waste not
Compound butter is simply butter that’s been mixed with flavourings, both sweet and savoury, and is a tasty and easy way to give a small bunch of tired herbs new life. It can be melted over vegetables, stirred through pasta, grains or pulses, basted over meat or fish, spread on toast, or frozen in slices to use a little at a time. Think of this less as a recipe and more as a framework: taste as you go and decide whether you want something bold and explosive or a more gentle experience.Long before the TikTok revival, compound butter was something most home cooks admired on restaurant plates rather than made themselves. But it’s a really simple way to save a few tired herbs and give a meal a welcome boost, adding both serious flavour and visual impact
Chicken wings and soup: Helen Graves’ spring onion recipes
March is a tricky pin in the seasonal calendar, with energising winter citrus fading and spring’s stars yet to emerge. It’s a time when I find pleasure in reappraising ingredients that are routinely overlooked. Spring onions, say, which are often considered a garnish, but which are good for so much more. Their contrasting colourway is a clue to their varying intensity, with the white roots holding pungency and the greens more akin to especially bolshie chives. Today’s recipes harness the properties of both, bridging the gap between the current need for comfort and the warmer weather ahead
NHS and MoD will be urged to buy British tech to drive growth amid Iran crisis
Judge blocks justice department from subpoenaing Fed chair Jerome Powell
Oil price shock likely to ‘push the UK economy into recession’; US growth revised down – as it happened
Miliband reveals plans that could mean nuclear power plants built near homes
Bailiffs board Ryanair plane after airline refuses to pay delayed flight compensation
Bleak economic data shows UK plc in trouble well before Middle East crisis