This is one of those times where I am really glad to live in NYC. I just heard about this fascinating production from one of the other DA students, Laura. Thank you, Laura! This production by the Elevator Repair Service is a staging of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. And it’s not just a staged reading … well, I supposed it is technically, but this a fully staged production. Here’s the description from the Public Theater’s website:
One morning in the office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter of his desk. He starts to read it out loud and doesn’t stop. At first his coworkers hardly notice. But after a series of strange coincidences, it’s no longer clear whether he’s reading the book or the book is transforming him. Gatz is a theatrical and literary tour de force, not a retelling of the Gatsby story but an enactment of the novel itself. Over the course of 6 1/2 hours, the cast of 13 delivers Fitzgerald’s American masterpiece word for word, startlingly brought to life by a low-rent office staff in the midst of their inscrutable business operations.
Is it just me, or does this sound amazingly cool and a perfect outing? If you’re as jazzed (sorry, couldn’t resist) about this as I am, here are the details.
GATZ
Text: THE GREAT GATSBY by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Directed by JOHN COLLINS
There are student rates for tickets. You have to go personally to the box office with your St. Johns ID and it’s one ticket per person. The rate for a Gatz ticket is $50, which is considerably less than the regular price.
Elevator Repair Service’s staging of The Sound and the Fury is one of my favorite pieces of theater ever.