Play Review: The Great Gatsby

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I had never heard of the Picnic Theatre Company before, but I certainly knew the story of The Great Gatsby. I had originally wanted to see this performance at Dumbarton House, but the tickets sold out. However, I was very pleased that the other venue was the Dupont Underground, which is a very cool space.

Even though the stage was small, the group did a good job of transitioning between locations by projecting different images on the wall behind the stage. Image found here.

With a small venue and I'm sure a tight budget, this version of Gatsby could not be as grand as the movies have been able to make it (both the Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio films). But the grandest part of this performance were the costumes. I would wear every single one of those art deco dresses!

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The cast was enthusiastic, but some of the actors didn't really fit their characters. Christina Sevilla (in the green dress above) doesn't look like Daisy Buchanan at all, and her acting skills were sub-par. And Antonio Olivo (middle of the back row in the tie), who is supposed to play the young Nick Carraway, is at least in his 40s (Nova Daly in the white blazer as Gastby also seemed a little old). Emily Lenzner (back row, fourth from the right) who played Jordan Baker (a character I had completely forgotten about) was my favorite by far. And the friend I went with actually knows Charles Kovatch (back row, second from the left), who played Tom Buchanan, in real life!

I would still be curious to see future performances by this company (their Facebook page says the next play will be in early November), even if I wasn't completely impressed. I still like to support local theater!