Ten years and one day after its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells, David Nixon’s dance theatre interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel returned to the same theatre for a very welcome revival. Nixon, the former artistic director of Northern Ballet, has a penchant for interpreting literary giants in movement: Wuthering Heights, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula and Hamlet were all in his back catalogue at the time of creating The Great Gatsby.
Fitzgerald’s novel was a slow burn, selling negligibly in the year of its publication (1925) and only becoming a classic after the author’s death in 1940, accelerating in popularity from then on for his novel to become an essential record of America in the roaring twenties. Gatsby’s enduring popularity has again ensured sell-out audiences for this London run.
The complexity of relationships and the subtle symbolism of Fitzgerald’s prose is a big ask to convey in dance, but Nixon’s choreographic sketch is enough to satisfy the novel’s aficionados (who clearly made up a sizeable proportion of the audience). Those unfamiliar with the great American story will need to read the extensive synopsis in the programme to keep up with the whizz-bang comings and goings on stage!
The downside of Nixon’s search for authenticity is that the story necessarily unfolds at breakneck pace, which made the detailed building of character a challenge. The central narrative arc of Gatsby’s obsessive love for Daisy Buchanan is mixed with two marriages blighted by adultery, two other love affairs and various interlaced friendships. The broader setting of flamboyant parties and idyllic, hazy days in the long hot summer of 1922 is accentuated by key symbols from the novel, such as the green light that beguiles Gatsby from the opposite side of the bay where Daisy now resides with her brutish husband Tom and their infant daughter (a delightful performance by Freyja Doucet from the Central School of Ballet). Sinister men wrapped up in dark greatcoats topped by wide-brimmed hats inhabit the periphery, hinting at the criminal source of Gatsby’s wealth.
Most of the music is compiled from Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s film scores (Nicholas and Alexandra, Murder on the Orient Express and Lady Caroline Lamb), his symphonic work topped by his haunting jazz classic “I Never Went Away” (so much inspired by the 40s tunes of Gershwin and Porter that it could easily have been composed by either), providing an emotional and beautiful epilogue pas de deux for Gatsby and Daisy. Bennett was consulted on the orchestrations (by John Longstaff and Gavin Sutherland) but sadly died before the premiere. Jonathan Lo conducted the Northern Ballet Sinfonia with his customary aplomb (surely there is more than one of him since he appears to be conducting everywhere all at once, these days)!
The ensemble gave an appealing portrayal of bright young things from the roaring twenties, performing the dance crazes of the flapper age (from Charleston to Tango) flavoured by classical ballet although Nixon’s steps sometimes appeared as if a pick-and-mix selection box from Ballet 101.
Initially, I found Joseph Taylor (a nominee in this year’s National Dance Awards) and Dominique Larose somewhat anonymous as Gatsby and Daisy, although this all changed after the Heavenly Space pas de deux that closed act one. Their mutual chemistry in this and the final pas de deux was exceptionally strong. The most impactful solo dancing came from George Liang as George Wilson, the cuckolded garage owner/mechanic, on discovering his wife’s dead body (after she was accidentally run down by Gatsby’s car, driven by Daisy). It was a dance of exceptional grief, with hyper-flexible, arched-back expressionism, and superbly performed. Helen Bogatch was appropriately alluring as his wife, Myrtle (the mistress of Daisy’s husband, Tom). The passionate and athletic bedroom pas de deux between Liang and Bogatch was another of Nixon’s choreographic highlights. Gavin McCaig gave a strong account of Tom, as great a contrast with his own sensitive personality as it is possible to imagine (he certainly wins the award for the best example in ballet of arrogant man-spreading on a chair); and Sean Bates was well cast as Daisy’s cousin, Nick, the sensitive observer of events, with Heather Lehan as his love interest, Jordan Baker, the pro-golfer who is Daisy’s best friend.
The production can never quite rise above a superficial evocation of the story’s extremes, either in the roaring flamboyance of Gatsby’s extravagant parties (so well expressed in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film) or the seedy undercurrent of crime and adultery. But, just as Jérôme Kaplan’s impactful set designs give an uncomplicated flavour of the jazz-age mood, Nixon’s ballet provides a satisfactory headline summary of a great novel, giving Northern Ballet even greater credence as a reliable purveyor of meaningful dance theatre.
