A glass breaks – not by accident, but in perfect time with the music. A flicker of flame flares from a dancer’s lips. A gasp sweeps the room. 

Above the crowd, an aerialist twists through the air while champagne corks pop somewhere in the background. At your elbow, a stranger presses a cocktail into your hand. And above, in the half-shadow, an impeccably dressed man scans the crowd … as if searching for someone who might never arrive.

This – and more – is Gatsby at the Green Light, where the line between party guest and audience member is dissolved and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s elusive Jay Gatsby is reborn in a decadent nightclub for the 2020s. 

It’s one of the marquee events at this year’s Brisbane Festival and – if director Craig Ilott and designer Stuart Couzens have their way – it will be the hottest ticket in town.

Gatsby at the Green Light. Photo supplied

Ilott is no stranger to turning live performance into a full-body experience. His productions — from L’Hôtel to Velvet Rewired – offer pleasure-seekers a heady cocktail of cabaret, variety, circus and music –...