2022 – Cape Town
The Great Gatsby was the first major theatrical event at the newly reopened Star Theatre — formerly the beloved Fugard Theatre — arriving as a bold celebration of live performance after a season of lockdowns and closures that had devastated the performing arts industry. Presented by the Cape Town Theatre Company and Claremont Dramatic Society, the production featured a cast of 27 actors, singers, dancers and musicians.
The story follows Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest for New York City in the spring of 1922 — an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings, and sky-rocketing stocks — landing next door to the mysterious, party-giving millionaire Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering, blue-blooded husband Tom Buchanan.
Hema Maskowitz was brought onto the production as lighting designer at the personal invitation of co-author Stephan Fourie. Working alongside a programmer and operator provided by the venue, Hema designed a rig built around colour as emotional language: reds and oranges carrying the heat of danger and desire, soft whites and blues underpinning the symbolism of illusion and loss, haze and smoke adding texture to the outdoor scenes and the grand party sequences.
The production included two significant custom elements. Specialised lighting was built directly into the oculus backdrop, activated scene by scene to punctuate key dramatic moments. Six large towering set pieces were designed and fabricated with integrated LED strips powered by internal batteries — allowing them to be moved freely around the stage without cabling constraints, lit from within, glowing as part of the world rather than merely being illuminated by it.
