The Great Gatsby – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Set in the grand manor of Jay Gatsby in 1922, Pitlochry Festival Theatre presents us with Elizabeth Newman’s dreamy adaptation of The Great Gatsby as part of their 2025 Summer repertoire.  With a winding imperial staircase, sheer curtains that drift in the breeze, and a magnificent art-deco style glass chandelier, Jen McGinley’s set design establishes the splendour and veil over New York in the roaring twenties.  The band sits atop the staircase, observing the mayhem below them unfold from behind their white-rimmed glasses.  As in Pitlochry’s latest production of grease, the cast act in the play as well as making up the band.  Accompanying the play with classic jazz standards, setting the tone for Gatsby’s (played by Oraine Johnson) raucous parties.

The story unfolds through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s new neighbour, played by David Rankine.  Rankine is the perfect Carraway, strongly leading the performance with gravitas and depth with perfect line delivery.  Through Rankine’s performance we see Carraway start as a humble and meager bondsman, then slowly develop into a weathered writer, well acquainted with scandal and sin.  Rankine’s performance contributed such a fundamental part to the success of this play, with his thorough understanding and conveyance of Carraway’s arc.  Carraway’s love interest, Jordan Baker, is played by April Nerissa Hudson, who gives an immediately likeable and charismatic performance as Baker.  Although not a frequently appearing character, Hudson stole the show with her exuberant energy, acting as a symbolic representation of Carraway’s descent into Gatsby’s grip.  Carraway’s cousin Daisy and her husband Tom, played by Fiona Wood and Tyler Collins gave us an insight into the command money has on high society and its workings.  Collins’ was an ideal villain, delivering a performance so ill-tempered and cutting it was almost too believable – I almost wanted to give him a pantomime-like boo hiss.

Although the cast captured the sleaze of aristocracy in 1920s New York, I feel the play was lacking this energy direction wise, perhaps so focused on the development and relationships between characters that it began to lack the chaos and vibrance of Gatsby.  While there were stunning moments when the green light shone and the ocean waves lapped, there were also moments that felt sort of out of place.  A recurring moment in the show features Gatsby requesting his favourite song to be played at each party which he then proceeds to dance to.  It sort of broke the idea that Gatsby is this mysterious, unknown figure as he danced for all to see and the movement stylistically felt as if it was more 1960s than 1920s.

While in certain sections the lighting was magical, especially when hitting the sheer curtains, perhaps it could have involved some more movement and more darkness in the party scenes to make the lack of guests at Gatsby’s party less conspicuous and bring a more raucous feeling to the room.

Gatsby’s car also posed some issues for me, for one I think some technical elements needed to be added to separate the car from the house as each scene where characters were in the car just felt like they were in a car in Gatsby’s house, however the first reveal of the car was stunning, with it appearing from behind the sliding doors, its headlights glinting.  The car crash too just didn’t work for me, almost feeling comical.  I think this production needs to utilise blackouts to disguise the limitations that come with the medium – some things are best left to the audience’s imagination – there is power in the unseen.

Although I feel this production had some hesitancy to it, in all it was enjoyable and it is always nice to see a production being bold enough to try things that are perhaps a risk, or a little out of the box for traditional theatre.  While the repertoire formula can be demanding and has its challenges, witnessing the versatility of the crew and the cast is a pleasure and has me fondly invested in this season.  The spectacular Great Gatsby will be performing until the 25th of September. www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com

Reviewer: Jessie Martin

Reviewed: 17th July 2025

North West End UK Rating: