Last Thursday, my school and I went to Theatre Calgary to watch The Great Gatsby. It was a great performance and was fascinating as it was intriguing. When I watched the play, I could really connect to director Kim Collier through the quotes she chose to use. However, the way she presented the car scene was very clever; but at the same time, if you didn’t read the book, or seen another version of The Great Gatsby, you would not have understood what was happening.
The students in my class foretold many of the techniques used (including the use of the lights when Myrtle dies), but the moving staircase and the real car that was brought in was a great surprise. I thought the car was really cool and although I know it is dangerous and the insurance bill must be huge, I think it would have been much better if they also included the car somehow in some of the other car scenes. Also, the car was exactly how I thought it would be.
Most of the parts were distributed pretty well although I really didn’t know Nick’s voice as the narrator. He was too uncertain about what he was saying although his voice did project very well to the audience. I think Daisy was exactly the way I wanted her to be portrayed. I almost laughed when she said, “Do you love me?” Whenever I think about her, that’s the exact line I run through my head.
Overall, I think that The Great Gatsby was a huge success and one of the better plays preformed at Theatre Calgary.
Published on April 10, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald thought, because of his early success, that this book would sell well. It didn’t. Through his editor Max Perkins, Fitzgerald found out that his new book only sold about 20,000 copies by the end of the year. The reviews were all very bland and horrible to Fitzgerald. None of them capture the real essence and actual meaning behind all the fancy words and schemes in the book. He commented, “of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about.” The New York World even gave it the headline: “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Latest a Dud.” Currently however, it is one of the world’s most renowned classics.
So what is the real essence, the actual juice of the orange? Let’s start with the American Dream. The book was written in the 1920s, the “party” decade. It was the Jazz Age, the age of the automobiles, the age of the flappers, the age of the parties. People were drunk, people were happy, people were partying. Fitzgerald himself was a great example of a drunk.
In the book, Daisy knew it all; she knew more than Gatsby ever will. Gatsby thought money was everything. He thought that if he had money, he would get Daisy. But he didn’t. Same scenario with Tom. Money never bought Myrtle Wilson; and money will never buy Daisy. That was the American Dream. The moment you are in it, you feel like everything, an the moment you’re not, you are betrayed. Betrayed by the American Dream. The parties in real life and at Gatsby’s were all for show. In reality, people were just drunk. Day and night. Lives are corrupted by greed and therefore were unfulfilled.
Another aspect of the novel was trying to get something you can’t have. In the Great Gatsby, it was symbolized by the “green light at the end of the dock”. It was shown when Gatsby couldn’t get Daisy, and also when no one could get Myrtle.
The last aspect the book brings up is the thought process going on at the time of doing everything before you die. We can relate this to YOLO of our time. Party, and live your life before you die. Live it before you even get to your 40‘s and when you get to your 40’s, drink. For Fitzgerald, this was his life. He drunk until he was in the hospital. In fact, for most of his later years, he was either at the hospital or drunk at home.
Click here to know more about F. Scott Fitzgerald:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL05VV040Ls
A scene from The Great Gatsby at Theatre Calgary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfqdBpYctn0
Behind the scenes on The Great Gatsby at Theatre Calgary: