The American Repertory Theater is showcasing F. Scott Fitzgerald's American classic 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) like never before. Director John Collins' current production of 'Gatz' is a drama that incorporates a full'minus;length reading of Fitzgerald's novel. The play takes an impressive six hours to complete, with two intermissions and an hour'minus;long dinner break to keep audiences going.
While the play's slow beginning may scare away less dedicated theatergoers, it adds to the plotline's gradually building momentum and the overall experience of the play. 'Gatz' opens with an office worker, suffering from an indifferent work ethic, finding a copy of 'The Great Gatsby' in his rundown, low'minus;budget workplace. The employee reads the first few pages in a monotone voice, feigning only vague curiosity for the novel. As he half'minus;heartedly tries to get his computer to work, the employee quickly becomes absorbed in the text. He blocks out the movements and mutterings of those around him until a remark from one person startles him; his coworker says the same sentence as the one he's just read in the book.
As the novel progresses, so does the involvement of the office with the text. The overlapping interactions between the two realms are exaggerated to the point where they can no longer be passed off as coincidences. The office workers' strange and erratic behavior can only be explained in the context of the novel. What began as seemingly distinct story lines for the office and the novel eventually culminate into one single jazz'minus;ridden cadence.
Due to the nature of the show, it takes a while to understand the many characters silently working in office. Their presence is at first disconnected and distracts from the reading, as they whisper to one another, grab files and make phone calls. With an ensemble cast of 13 actors, all of the characters make their appearances one by one over the course of the play, making their corresponding roles in the novel evident. It is immediately apparent that Nick (Scott Shepherd) is the reader, equivalent to the narrator of the novel, and that Jim, aka Gatsby, (Jim Fletcher) is the more serious and senior employee of the two. For the other characters in the office, it is only a result of their not'minus;so'minus;subtle actions that the audience realizes their place in the novel.
One of the more brilliantly executed scenes in 'Gatz' occurs at the end of chapter five when Jim is flustered seeing Daisy (Victoria Vazquez) again for the first time. The music playing is a mixture of rainfall and a woman's soft singing, providing an ominous, sensual tone for the scene. At this moment, the novel is all that matters, making the fact that all the play's props resemble office supplies - Vazquez drives over for tea on a swivel chair - simply irrelevant. At heightened moments like this, such disparities are much more entertaining than distracting.
The set for 'Gatz' is a detailed, authentic reproduction of a dingy, generic office. Filing cabinets, an old sofa and swivel chairs clutter the set and impede the movement on stage as the actors are forced to stumble, push and toss the objects out of the way. Dim, flickering fluorescent lights recreate storms while maintaining the essence of a rundown office space. Far away from West Egg, the wealthy suburban setting of the novel, the office is transformed through the actors on stage, so that no separation is noticeable between the two.
However exciting it may be to combine the staged business office and its employees with 'The Great Gatsby,' the most interesting element of the entire production lies in their differences. The juxtaposition of a mundane, uninspired workplace to the glamorous and self'minus;destructive West Egg seems ludicrous, but ultimately, that odd combination is what makes the play succeed.
'Gatz' is an Elevator Repair Service production and is running at the Loeb Drama Center until Feb. 7. Student rush tickets are available for $20 two hours before the performance. A boxed dinner is also available for pre'minus;order, if one can sit through the entire production.
