The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company just gets better and better! Their performance of an adaptation of The Great Gatsby as their season opener for 2014-15 was painful, crazed, sad even with all the beauty, and great performances.
The meanness between Daisy and her husband was stunning – his cruelty was not nearly as egregious in the movie with Leonardo Di Caprio a couple of years ago. The love, the desperation, the longing. This is all emotion, all the time. And the sense of doom from the first moment. Daisy is going to be weak, Gatsby is going to lose.
There is a way in which it feels right that Jay Gatsby should die suddenly, rather than over many years of grieving.
So many great scenes – Gatsby pulling out all sweaters and shirts out of the cupboard. His friend Nick’s uncertainty throughout, while he continued as go-between. Daisy’s uncertainty over her marriage. This was great theater.