Over the weekend, you might have walked by Daisy’s Mercantile on Park Street and never suspected that hidden within was an intimate theater. From the exterior, the store looked disarmingly as it always does, with its aesthetic displays of tasteful clothes, décor, and gifts.
However, those who are in the know informed the nice lady at the front that Gene “The Boss” Kahane had sent us. With the intrigue of a speakeasy, we were directed out the back, to the left, and down a dimly lit alleyway to a room of bright elegance filled with hardbound books, champagne buckets, and other trappings of jazz-era elegance.
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
It was the opening weekend of The Foodbank Players’ presentation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Every element of the theater space, a repurposed classroom courtesy of Daisy’s Mercantile, collaborated to create a beautifully immersive experience.
The hidden entrance led to the elegant room with gold and white chairs for the audience. Décor included gin bottles, shelves of cocktail glasses, floral arrangements, and “the Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg,” part of a billboard ad described in the novel. The venue shared the name of Gatsby’s sweetheart, Daisy Buchanan, whose green light, a symbolic beacon of hope and aspiration, was visible through glass doors. And we, the audience, didn’t just view all this on a stage but were in the room where everything happened, as though we were Gatsby’s guests.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow, we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
There was space for just 23 guests, and while director Gene Kahane would have appreciated room for a larger audience, the intimacy contributed to a sense of thematic decadence, as though our small group had commissioned a private performance. The actors could speak conversationally and be heard clearly, adding to our immersion.
The Roaring Twenties costumes were fun, and the actors suited their parts. Paul Bisesi captured Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s intelligent neighbor who sees all, becoming our erudite guide to Gatsby’s world. Dashing Matt Hess played ambitious dreamer Jay Gatsby, who bootlegs and bends the truth in pursuit of lost love. Sam Weiner was properly offensive as Daisy’s racist, philandering husband, Tom Buchanan.
Kelsey Goeres was smart and snappy as Daisy’s modern flapper girlfriend, Jordan Baker, complimenting Darrah Jones’ morally ambiguous Daisy Buchanan, whose loveliness and winsome femininity fueled Jay Gatsby’s fantasy and Tom Buchanan’s idealism.
There was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour. – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Rounding out the cast were Ben Rings as the mobster Meyer Wolfsheim, Mary Watson as desperate Myrtle Wilson, hoping to escape her unhappy marriage through a fling with Tom Buchanan, Justin Nilsen as Myrtle’s downtrodden husband Wilson and an inebriated party guest, Owl Eyes, Bill Brobeck as Gatsby’s ever proper butler and Gatsby’s father, Henry Gatz, and Frida and Katya Schiesser as the fabulous Fitzgerald Sisters, celebrity entertainers.
Director Kahane deftly adapted Fitzgerald’s classic into a workable play for community theater. The 1925 novel examines how the relentless pursuit of the American Dream of wealth and social standing can lead to moral decay. It also explores universally relatable elements of human nature. Gatsby dreams of recreating an idealized past, and Daisy Buchanan, in Kahane’s words, faces “the temptation and terror” of giving up what she has for what she could have had. Who has not made a fateful decision and pined over what might have been?
“Can’t repeat the past?… Why, of course, you can!”― Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
However, most impressive and heartwarming was the unique experience created by the community converging to support those in need. The Foodbank Players present community-based theatrical performances of classic works, raising funds and awareness for the Alameda Food Bank. The director and actors donated their time. Daisy’s Mercantile provided the space and décor. Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden gifted delicious, custom cookies. Other local entities acted as sponsors, and the audience arrived with open hearts and enthusiasm for the work and the cause.
Tickets for Foodbank Players performances are always free, but donations to the Food Bank are gratefully accepted. Over eleven shows, not counting The Great Gatsby, the Foodbank Players have raised $37,000 for the Alameda Food Bank.
All performances of The Great Gatsby through March 15 are sold out. Director Kahane says the show’s run may extend to meet high demand. Sign up for The Foodbank Players’ email list to receive notice of any extension. Existing reservations are sometimes canceled, so click the reservation link to see if anything becomes available. The Foodbank Players’ next show will be The Taming of the Shrew in June.
Contributing writer Karin K. Jensen covers boards and commissions for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at https://linktr.ee/karinkjensen and https://alamedapost.com/Karin-K-Jensen.
