One morning in the shabby office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter on his desk. He starts to read it out loud and doesn’t stop. At first his co-workers 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.
With the whole event running at eight hours, including two short intervals and a one and a half hour dinner break, it is a theatrical event in which audiences and performers become complicit with themselves and each other in appreciation of the extraordinary prose of the novel and the achievement of the actors.
The cast includes Laurena Allan (Myrtle), Jim Fletcher (Jim), Ross Fletcher (Henry C. Gatz), Lindsay Hockaday (alternate Catherine) Mike Iveson (Ewing), Vin Knight (Chester), Aaron Landsman (George), Annie McNamara (Catherine, alternate Jordan), Kate Scelsa (Lucille), Scott Shepherd (Nick), Susie Sokol (Jordan), Lucy Taylor (Daisy), and Ben Williams (Michaelis).
GATZ is part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, bringing leading artists from all over the world together in a UK-wide festival in the summer of 2012.
“A great American classic has been captured with total, transfixing fidelity by this dedicated ensemble” The Guardian
“An epic achievement - and a tribute to the greatness of Fitzgerald’s novel” The Evening Standard
“a love-letter to the beguiling power of a great book” Time Out
"The most remarkable achievement in theater not only of this year but also of this decade. The Elevator Repair Service’s word-for-word presentation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” captured - in inventively theatrical terms - the unmatchable, heady rush of falling in love with a book. And Scott Shepherd, as a common reader seduced by a great American novel, gave - hands down - the year’s most heroic performance". - Ben Brantley, The New York Times 2010
Performances are on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week and next, with the last show being on 15 July.