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Office Workers Stage The Great Gatsby Word-for-Word
14 Mar
Summary
- The show recreates The Great Gatsby by reading the novel aloud in full.
- Actors shift between office personas and characters from the novel.
- The production challenges the text, exploring theatrical and novelistic spaces.
Her Majesty's Theatre in Adelaide is hosting 'Gatz,' a groundbreaking production by New York's Elevator Repair Service. This show presents F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, read aloud in its entirety.
The performance begins with an office worker discovering a copy of the novel, leading his colleagues to gradually inhabit the characters. The production is described as a transfixing, fully immersive joy, lasting eight and a half hours. Actors seamlessly toggle between their everyday office personas and the roles from Gatsby, creating a unique theatrical experience.
This unique adaptation eschews traditional theatrical interpretation for a word-for-word performance. The staging deliberately subverts expectations, with elements like a faulty computer and the sound technician becoming part of the narrative. The production probes the spaces between the novel and the stage, questioning the text itself.
Scott Shepherd delivers a staggering performance as Nick Carraway, lauded for his precise vocal delivery and profound insights. The ensemble cast, including Jim Fletcher as a young Gatsby and Lucy Taylor as Daisy, also provides memorable portrayals. John Collins directs with exceptional control over mood and pacing.
The production's anachronistic office setting and low-rent costumes underscore Fitzgerald's themes of time and money. By performing in a scuzzy working environment, 'Gatz' undercuts the novel's privileged milieu, presenting Gatsby as a universal warning against careless and venal people. The show's vigilance and poetic sensibility offer a benediction for both a lost age and the future.
