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The Herald Scotland
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
A high class speakeasy with no happy ending
Pitlochry Festival Theatre Happy endings don't come easy in Elizabeth Newman's new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's twentieth century jazz age American classic. Produced for the 100th anniversary of the novel's publication in this co-production between Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Derby Theatre, Fitzgerald's ennui laden yarn of vaulting ambition lays bare how money may talk, but it also corrupts. As with the book, the story is told by Nick Carraway, here a wannabe writer observing the scene he accidentally falls into with an eye for myth making where everything and everyone becomes material. And what a gift Jay Gatsby is, a self-made nouveau riche socialite with a murky background who only wants to impress his former lover Daisy. She may have sold her soul to marriage with nasty Tom, but is tempted back into Gatsby's social whirl with devastating results. Read More: Sarah Brigham's production sets out its store on Jen McGinley's neon tinged set of staircases either side of an empty stage that projects the air of a high-class speakeasy. Above it, the all-singing, all-dancing cast of nine become the show's house band, an after hours jazz combo featuring a roll-call of torch singers who, under Shonagh Murray's musical direction, take turns in the spotlight. In between numbers, they watch the spectacle below sporting vintage shades like a cabaret act playing a 3D B-movie. Nick has his sights set on something bigger for his story, which evolves into a New Journalese tabloid fable on class, wealth and the hedonistic perils of living the high life without a safety net. This is made flesh here by David Rankine as a forceful Nick, with Gatsby's easy largesse brought to the fore in a confident turn by Oraine Johnson. Daisy is played by Fiona Wood with a mix of wide-eyed pleasure seeking and cutthroat opportunism, while, as Tom, Tyler Collins channels the laconic sneer of a young Jack Nicholson. There are some fine young cameos too from April Nerissa Hudson as Nick's ice-cool love interest Jordan, Leah Jamieson as bored party girl Catherine, and especially from Celeste Collier as the hapless but doomed Myrtle Chase. Collier doubles up as a peachy keen cub reporter who will never make the Gatsby guest list in a deliciously turned out burl through what now looks like the beginnings of the American dream's long drawn out last gasp.
BBC News
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'We often played in too big men's football shirts'
The experiences of women playing football and the challenges encountered when pursuing a career as a professional have been captured in a for a Girl, which tackles the day-to-day inequalities faced such as the gender pay gap, has opened in Birmingham."Things have changed in recent years but it's still not good enough, we cover sexual assault and the power dynamics of male coaches," playwright Becky Deeks premiered at the Rep Theatre and will be touring venues across the Midlands including Malvern Theatre, Derby Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre and Attenborough Arts Centre. Ms Deeks, who played women's football as a teenager, said: "We often played in men's kits and the shirts would come down to my knees, our changing rooms were often a 10-minute walk away from the pitch."The play is 90 minutes long with extra time to reflect a football match, and is set in a female dressing room to show teamwork and friendships that are formed between the Wild, the play's director, said: "What the play is about is having a great time with our audience and exploring these themes, but also trying to make a change in society and trying to highlight the things that we do want to address within football and equality for women in general." With the aim of inspiring young women and girls to consider the sport, the play has also been hosting workshops with grassroots women's football Kumari, campaign manager for the Football Supporters Association said: "What a lot of women and girls want is to have the capacity to have a career which is on a par with male players."Working with children is really important as that's the time when beliefs are formed." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
