Riotous 1920s fun that slightly overstays its welcome

Immersive LDN have turned the clocks back 100 years at their Mayfair hub for their production of The Great Gatsby, directed and adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel by Alexander Wright. We are escorted upstairs to a party at Gatsby’s Mansion where we shift between partygoers and observers of Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan and then the iconic Jay Gatsby – New York socialites who all have some trouble not sleeping with each other.

This is a tale of two shows: the party and the story. The party is a riot. Within minutes you find yourself lindy-hopping on the dancefloor like a 12-year-old on too much J2O, you are swept away for heart-to-hearts about affairs, more affairs and even more affairs, you suppress giggles as the person you were just gossiping about bursts into the room – this is joyous. Some of the best fun you can have at the theatre, and if it was just this for two hours, it would be a magical night. 

Unfortunately, as is typically the case with theatre, there’s a story (boo) and although the world of The Great Gatsby is perfect for an immersive experience, the narrative doesn’t slot in quite as smoothly. The cast do well to establish the endless coupling, re-coupling and bed-hopping that defined 20s upper-class New York, and all performers are excellent in their bravery to get us involved, but it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on as you are whisked around from person to person, often without much explanation as to why – at times, it can feel less like a party and more like herding sheep into a lecture hall.

The key plot moments also lose power due to set limitations. For most of the second act, the bar turns into an awkward theatre in the round as we sit patiently while the cast recount all the bits you remember from your GCSE English Lit: Tom and Gatsby’s argument, Myrtle’s death by car crash, Wilson murdering Gatsby (I’d say spoiler warning but you’ve had a century) – these moments are neither literal nor stylised enough to have an impact and often make you yearn for the first ten minutes of free roaming.

The set is appealing on entry but dwindles in comparison to its immersive competition across the capital. As examples, the smoggy grunge of Peaky Blinders and the industrial LED no-man’s-land of Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City both far outshine Gatsby’s Mansion, some parts of which can feel like a school disco – for £40 a pop, you can ask more.

This show does provide moments of giddy glee, the feeling of a glamorous retreat to the decadent 1920s, but sadly it loses its way through Fitzgerald’s tangled narrative. Also, they do say ‘old sport’ a lot.