Souvenirs: Ticket for The Northern Ballet’s “The Great Gatsby”, Hull New Theatre, Hull, 04/04/13.

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ballet, dance, F Scott Fitzgerald, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, Hull New Theatre, J Gatsby, Northern Ballet, Souvenirs, Ted, The Great Gatsby, The Great Gatsby film, The Great Gatsby novel, Ticket

This weekend the Classic Serial on BBC Radio 4 has been Robert Forrest’s two part adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby“, which got me thinking about the various adaptations of the work I’ve come across over the years and how they all remind me of different chapters or themes in the original novel.

The 1974 film, starring Robert Redford as Gatsby, for example, reminds me of the way in which Gatsby tries to hang on to this character he’s created for himself [the Oxford man with the medal from Montenegro], someone who thinks they can turn back time to produce what should have happened. More recently, whilst watching the 2013 film version, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, the character seems to take on a dual role as a genuinely romantic figure, pining for a lost love, but also someone we can project our prejudices and fears onto, because we don’t really know anything about him [is he a bootlegger, a spy, a murderer or just a bit vulgar?] until he reveals all and the curtain of ignorance is lifted.

The Northern Ballet production of “The Great Gatsby” had an old and a young Gatsby, and an old and young Daisy, so we see the story of Gatsby’s past unfold on the stage before our eyes, parallel to the present.

According to my souvenir programme, Javier Torres played the older Gatsby and his name always stands out for me in subsequent programmes, so his performance must have been quite something, but my memory has failed me regarding the particulars [this is one of those moments in which, if I had a time machine, I would go back and tell myself, “You better write some notes about this now, because you’re going to write a blog in two years time!”]. I would see Mr. Torres later in 2013 as The Ghost of Christmas Present, in the Northern Ballet’s “A Christmas Carol” at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield and as Julius Caesar in “Cleopatra” as the same theatre, but those are different stories all together.

A chap called Matthew Topliss played the young Gatsby and it’s his performance that comes immediately to mind when I think of “The Great Gatsby“. The J. Gatsby who came back from the war with nothing but the khaki uniform he stood up in, was surrounded by shady characters and becomes the front for their criminal activities, initially motivated by near starvation, rather than any grand scheme to win back Daisy’s heart. This is seen in sharp contrast to all the other elements of the production.

It is also worth saying that Isaac Lee-Baker played a very good part as garage owner George Wilson. It was a part very well written and very well performed.

Souvenirs: Flyer, 2Faced Dance Company Present “Two Old Men”, Paragon Interchange, Freedom Festival, Hull, 2013.

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2Faced Dance Company, break dancing, contemporary dance, dance, Freedom Festival Hull, Freedom Festival Hull 2013, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, old age, Paragon Interchange Hull, Souvenirs, street dancing, Two Old Men

To quote from the 2Faced Dance Company’s website, “2Faced Dance produces innovative, accomplished and aspirational artistic performance and participation programmes alongside a captivating community dance programme that truly reflects the landscape in which we are based, allowing us to tell new and original stories, generating distinctive new work, whilst striving to stay relevant to our audiences“. This performance ticked all of those boxes.

The section on “Two Old Men” describes the performance as “a story about two men’s extraordinary experiences, eccentric behaviour and witty tales.Two Old Men will make you gasp, laugh and cry as the old men take you on a life long journey all the way to the pub“.

If you’re interested in the technical details the performance involves a mix of “break, street and contemporary dance”. Here are some of my photographs from that “adrenalin fuelled” twenty minutes:

Regular Hull commuters or readers of this blog might notice something different about this part of the Paragon Interchange, which I’ve mentioned here and here. Last November, to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, plaques were mounted all around the walls and between the double doors you can see in the background in the photographs above. How quickly history is made.

The Northern Ballet’s “Peter Pan”, The Grand Theatre and Opera House, Leeds, 20/12/14.

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ballet, dance, Leeds, Northern Ballet, Peter Pan, The Grand Leeds, The Grand Theatre and Opera House Leeds, Theatre

Outside The Grand before the matinee performance.

I have never seen myself as a reviewer before, but I found myself, on the 17.05 East Coast service from Leeds to London King’s Cross, scribbling down notes on the performance in my pocket book and it wouldn’t do harm to share them with you.

Firstly, The Grand is a great venue and the staff are first rate; I’ve never had any problems there. If I had to say something negative it would be that it got got a bit warm up in the Dress Circle, but there isn’t a lot you can do about that!

Over the years I have tried to learn the dancer’s names from the programmes and the cast sheets they put in them, so I was concerned at first that I hardly recognised any, but I needn’t have worried. Mlindi Kulashe, for example, is a new name to me, but he gave a wonderful performance as Peter Pan and I’d be very interested to see what his next role will be with the Northern Ballet. Luke Francis, another name I’m not familiar with, played Peter Pan’s shadow in a scene that I’m sure will prove memorable.

Dreda Blow delivered, not one, but two enthralling performances as Mrs. Darling, the mother of Wendy, John and Michael, and the incredibly graceful Never Bird. I checked my programme in the interval and wasn’t surprise to find that the roles were being performed by one of the company’s Leading Soloists [and that evening I looked through some of my other programmes and I Dreda Blow’s name appeared more than once; most notably in “The Great Gatsby” at The New Theatre in Hull back in 2013].

The Mermaids received a universal gasp of amazement from the Dress Circle as they appeared, shimmering, on the stage [I’m not a big sequin fan, as a rule, but everything has its place and a Mermaids tail is one of those places]. Nana The Dog, played by Olivia Holland, was also well received.

I’m saving the last paragraph for Joeseph Taylor’s performance as both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. I had never given much thought to either character or how they might relate to each other before that Saturday matinee. The final scene sees the children return home and the children look at their father as if he were Captain Hook and I found it very moving, as did some other audience members within earshot of me on Row F.