In its essence, it is a conceptual retelling â rather like that of the Reduced Shakespeare Company â delightful for its minimalism and slick in its execution, however improvised it may appear. Jesse Meadows plays both Daisy Buchanan and Nick while Tamsin Hurtado Clarke is the flinty-hearted alpha male Tom Buchanan, who she plays like an overgrown frat-boy (âWassupâ he says, by way of introduction), and also Gatsby, who she plays far straighter.
They perform all the other roles too and manage to define each one sharply â with physical tics, accents and props but without diminishing characterisation. In the most impressive moments, one actor plays two characters in conversation with each other, which could easily lead to messiness or confusion. Yet Clarke singularly brings to life the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom after the latter realises Gatsby is having an affair with his wife, and Meadows pulls off an even more complicated contortion of narrating as
Last modified on Thu 25 Feb 2021 06.49 EST
Through his 30 years as a theatre producer, David Johnson, who has died aged 60, maintained a keen eye for the unlikely hit. Work that to other producers might seem too niche, too cultish or simply too vulgar would be picked up and – with a canny blend of shock and showmanship – reach audiences far bigger than anyone else could have imagined.
In September 1997, when my play Shopping and Fucking began its West End previews, ticket sales were sluggish. David, who with his business partner, Mark Goucher, had transferred the play (my first) from a small studio at the Royal Court, seemed untroubled. “It’s a different kind of show for a different kind of audience,” he counselled. “They’ll come.”