‘The Great Gatsby’ directed by Ewelina Marciniak at Schauspiel Frankfurt
Ewelina Marciniak and her team of Polish artists staged The Great Gatsby in Frankfurt, the capital of German finance, as a spectacle about the bankruptcy of the capitalist dream - founded on the wage labour of the usually invisible and nameless precariats. Marciniak plays with conventions freely and with humour: there is romance, there is detective story and even, in Iga Gancarczyk's unpredictable finale, Thriller.- writes Michał Centkowski.
The Schauspiel Frankfurt theatre hosted the premiere of Ewelina Marciniak's play based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's cult novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ in a stage adaptation by Iga Gańczarczyk. This is Ewelina Marciniak's second meeting with Frankfurt audience. The director, known for her grandiose and visually appealing stagings, takes on a novel about impossible love set in 1920s New York. In her staging, she focuses on the characters living in the shadows of this city's glittering facades, seeking the voice of those who exist in the darkness of decadence.
Ewelina Marciniak and her team of Polish artists staged The Great Gatsby in Frankfurt, the capital of German finance, as a spectacle about the bankruptcy of the capitalist dream - founded on the wage labour of the usually invisible and nameless precariats. And it is they, the girl for everything (Nina Wole) and Boy (Stefan Graf), who are the main characters. Together with the filmmakers, we peep behind the façade of lavish parties, beautiful houses and into the depths of the characters' dark relationships. Marciniak plays with conventions freely and with humour: there is romance, there is detective story and even, in Iga Gancarczyk's unpredictable finale, Thriller. Marciniak's production is at times reminiscent of Altman's Gosford Park and Abba's Downtown - and at times of the famous Parasite. For it is also about the revenge of the exploited. This whole world ultimately turns out to be a vague memory of the old Daisy (the excellent Heidi Ecks), whose fleeting love for the man from nowhere Jays Gatsby - who very impressively enters the (revolving) stage and the story - and the accident she caused have poisoned her life.
The whole thing takes place in a dazzling set designed by Grzegorz Layer and Ewelina Marciniak - reminiscent of a mythical land of happiness, over which a huge neon sunset towers like on a postcard from a better world. Adding to the lightness of the story is Agnieszka Kryst's spectacular choreography - inspired by the mad charleston of the 1920s - and the atmospheric, at times carefree and at times disturbing music of Wacław Zimpel is even a live performance by a three-person ensemble consisting of Tim Roth, Martin Standke and Yuriy Sych.
The premiere audience applauded the artists for a long time - the question is how Frankfurt, the German capital of capitalism, will react to this light-hearted but virulent criticism of the vanity class...