« The Great Gatsby », from the novel to the play

( Châtelet Theater, February 2022)

The play begins with an introduction of the place which is an empty and neutral stage and which lets the audience imagine the scene by themselves. Moreover, the lights and the music are used to symbolize the atmosphere.

Daisy and Jay Gatsby meet again after several years in this scenery.

Gatsby is immediately introduced by the walk-on actors as a generous, polite and gentle man.

Contrary to the novel, he is not the main character in this play. Nick is the main character. He is both a character and the narrator of the play. The actor is very talented. Indeed, his descriptions are very understandable so we can imagine the background very well. However, Nick switches from a  rôle to another and it makes the play less dynamic than it should. In the play, a different version of Gatsby is showed : he is less mysterious, he is not a dandy and he reveals his true personality. Sofiane Zemani, who plays Gatsby’s rôle, doesn’t play the real Gatsby well. However, he gives us a more significative and moving version of Gatsby.

Some of the stage choices can be difficult to understand for someone who has not read the play. Nevertheless, we would recommend it because it adds another point of view to the story.

Yassine, Yassir, Maxence, Yathoushan 1GA