
Production Information
Tuesday 16 April 1996 to Saturday 20 April 1996 (5 performances)
at Orleans Park School, Richmond Road, Twickenham, United Kingdom
On embarking on the journey that has been directing The Great Gatsby I spoke to many friends whose opinuions I value asking what they felt were the novel's central themes. All of their answers differed and some quite drastically, from a savage indictment of the American Dream to an eulogy of the dying class structure at the beginning of this century, leaving me perplexed. I had read the novel and whilst I could not disagree with any of the advice I had been given I could not help but feel that they had missed the point. The Great Gatsby is a classic text because at it's centre there is a beautiful storyline with carefully drawn characters you can believe in and some you can truly care for.
Colin [Smith's] adaptation misses none of this, moving dramatically along the line of the novel, illustrating the glamourous facade of the times - hiding the passions, universally felt, which drive the play to it's tragic ending.The Great Gatsby
by F.Scott Fitzgerald
Stage adaptation by Colin Smith