For someone supposedly heavily interested in arts and culture, I don’t go to the theatre anywhere near enough, nor do I read as much as I should. Seeing Gatz, then, an 8 hour (including intervals and a dinner break) production that speaks aloud every single word of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, was diving back into the deep end of things – though the risk I took in seeing it was nothing compared to that of the theatre company that chose to perform it.
I was fortunate enough to study (and write a bit) about the novel back when I took my masters (I chose a wild module in Modern American Literature). It’s a remarkable book, not only for the way it is written but also in terms of its modernity. Despite being firmly set in the roaring twenties, its pages are inhabited by phones, planes, cars, electricity, photographs, cinema… There are very few moments to suggest it couldn’t have been written within the last decade, and so the modern, run-down office in which Gatz takes place never feels anachronistic.
Staging a novel in its entirety, whilst a novel idea (had to get that out of the way), would only be possible with a select number of books, and fortunately The Great Gatsby is one of them. First off, it’s pretty short for a novel’s standards, coming in at just under 50,000 words. Secondly, there are large sections of the novel that I would happily sit down and hear read to me, such is the masterful beauty of Fitzgerald’s prose.
The play opens with a man walking into his office and turning on his computer. At least, he tries to turn it on, but it won’t work. Perplexed, he tried a few more times before slumping resignedly in his chair. He searches over his desk and finds a battered old copy of Fitzgerald’s seminal novel and, in a disinterested monotone, begins to narrate. Soon, he is drawn in, and as the pages fly by his co-workers get sucked into the story too, first as smart representations of the other characters, and later as full-bodied versions of them.
It’s a tribute to the production (and Fitzgerald’s writing) that come the end it didn’t really feel like I’d been there most of the day at all. There were a few moments (in the section between the first interval and the dinner interval in particular) when the pace dropped and my mind began to wander a little, but it would have to be something for anything to hold my attention for such a span. I can’t go an episode of Mad Men these days without checking twitter…
The themes in the novel/play bear a particular pertinence to today’s climate: wealth, excess, and the ultimate debunking of the rags to riches myth. Knowing the novel certainly aids to your appreciate of the play. There are small moments that I recognised with a wry smile (and congratulatory pat on the back) that might have passed me by if I were unfamiliar with the story. But even though I’d studied it and written about it, it felt at times as if I’d never really read it properly. When you hear certain passages – actually hear them spoken by an American voice – they jump out at you and really sink into your skin.
For the final fifteen minutes or so, the narrator (Scott Shepherd) stops reading from the novel and recites the remainder directly to the audience. He apparently knows the entire 50,000 odd words by heart, and deserves some kind of medal, if only for the sheer vocal endurance required of the task. There were a few moments when it hit me that I was literally watching the whole of the novel being performed, and it seemed almost unbelievable. But there I was.
A standing ovation proceeded the moving finale, and I left the theatre with the certain knowledge that Baz Lurhmann and Leonardo DiCaprio cannot possibly better Gatz with their upcoming Gatsby film. Or even come close. I’ve always been a big fan of Fitzgerald and his work anyway, but this fantastic, ambitious, and staggering production left me with a greater love for The Great Gatsby than ever before.
*Gatz has a limited run at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, with its final performance on Sunday July 15th. It’s probably a once in a lifetime experience, so I recommend making the effort to see it! https://www.gatzlondon.com/
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