The best drama
After the theatres re-opened in the spring, there was a flurry of immersive productions, which involve the audience in the action, both to give the productions as much flexibility as possible, but to also satisfy our need for human contact. The most notable of these, and one which is still running was The Great Gatsby (Immersive LDN, London), based around F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. In between scenes from the story of bond trader Nick Carraway and his friendship with the mysterious Jay Gatsby, you are given the opportunity to split off into smaller groups to experience vignettes from the characters’ lives. These include listening to a “business proposition” from one of Gatsby’s associates.
The evening contains plenty of glitz and glamour, from the opportunity to banter with the cast over introductory cocktails to participation in some high-stepping moves set to a combination of jazz and swing. However, the production doesn’t attempt to hide the darkness in what is, after all, a tragedy. Indeed, as the evening unfolds Fitzgerald’s critique of what he saw as the false hope provided by the American dream becomes apparent. This produces an evening out that is not only extremely entertaining, but is also an intelligent and moving experience.
If The Great Gatsby provides a glimpse of the New York underworld during the Roaring Twenties, then Crooks 1926 (CoLab Theatre, London), which closed earlier this month, showed how gangsters operated on the other side of the Atlantic. In the role of either a striking dockworker or a railwayman, you were invited to help out an East End criminal family as it struggled to come up with £10,000 to repay a debt. From rigging horseraces to picking pockets and using an army of taxi drivers, firemen and ladies of the night to lead a raid on a warehouse owned by a rival gang, members of the audience were constantly kept on their feet.