Glenda
Frank
A FULL DAY AT "GATZ" “Gatz,” created and performed
by the Elevator Repair Service (ERS)
“Gatz” is one of those New York events that people travel distances to view, an eight hour marathon devoted entirely to a story theater presentation of “The Great Gatsby” by the Elevator Repair Service. Over a decade ago, in 2010, ERS began presenting segments of this show. The current marathon is in honor of the upcoming centennial of the publication of this American classic. And it is marvelous! Although the standing ovation has become routine, at the close there was not a vacated seat. It's all the more remarkable because there are no bells and whistles. Just one well-conceived set (Louisa Thompson) of a non-descript office, simple costume design (Colleen Werthmann) but not a flapper dress in sight, and no projections. The plots of the sound (Ben Jalosa Williams) and lighting (Mark Barton) design are subtle dramas in themselves. The magic that makes this work funny, poignant, and startlingly brilliant are the director and cast of Elevator Repair Service. Through transformation, the secret power of theatre, the audience’s imagination becomes a creative partner. The office workers, a gray and beige bunch, are everyday people who wander in and out. It’s probably the 1980 because the one (broken) computer with its huge, bulky monitor looks like a Kapro (which was labeled a “portable computer” at the time because it only weighed 26 lbs.). The office isn’t very busy. Scott Shepherd (who also plays Nick Caraway) sits at his desk and reads the novel aloud throughout. He keeps the thumbed paperback in a black plastic box – both a safe and a mausoleum. The staff shrug their shoulders at his eccentric behavior and shush him when they have to make a phone call. The stage manager (Ben Jalosa Williams), operating lighting and sound, has a desk too. He pops in and out of the action as minor characters. Fitzgerald’s stunning phrasing restores the beauty of language to the stage, but “The Great Gatsby” is, after all, a novel. The living theatre is provided by the office staff as they incarnate their various roles -- and anticipate and parody the action. Our anticipation and their parody make this production distinctive. Susie Sokol, an actor playing an office worker, lounges on the sofa, leafing through a “Golf” magazine. But when she rises, she is Jordon Baker, Daisy’s best friend and a golf champion. She reads silently over Shepherd’s shoulder, who is annoyed. Then she speaks, as Jordan, including the phrase “she said.” It’s funny – her transformations, our temporary bewilderment at what she is about because it all felt spontaneous. We are relieved. We can relax into the plot.
Exaggeration has its own comic throne. On stage three men suddenly lean over so far they look as if they are going to fall. And Shepherd reads that the men at the party leaned closer. Our laughter at this clowning draws us closer to the scene, shaking us free to enter this world of love, death and longing . It’s chaos at the party at Myrtle (Laurena Allan) and Tom’s (Pete Simpson) love nest in the city, Sound rules. The music gets louder, papers are tossed in the air and land wherever, the pace of conversation steps up as cups are refilled. The frenetic energy threatens to reach a peak of unpleasantness until Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose because she says his wife’s name over and over with mockery. Action stops. Her white dress – symbol of her hope to become Tom’s second wife – is stained with blood. Nick, our narrator, exits the apartment. By the middle of the second of four sections, I could see Gatsby’s estate, Nick’s rental house, the loiterers after the car accident, the pool where Gatsby lay floating clearly in my mind’s eye. Jim Fletcher had become Gatsby, even when he was again an office worker reviewing a financial transaction. I simply had to wait for him to resume his “real” identity and while I waited, the rest of the story unfolded. Shepherd, who plays Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s young friend, and steps into other characters when needed, has impressive stamina. His voice is a steady guide throughout. The novel ends in a powerful poetic close where symbols become the metaphors of the American dream. The reading does not flag as Nick sits in judgment of his friend. Earlier Nick told us he is the most honest person he knows. Gatsby is a bootlegger. Jordan cheats at golf. Tom is a bully. Daisy and Myrtle are unfaithful. But Nick, we learn, is a seducer and heartbreaker. In the end, Nick realizes that Gatsby, a self-made man driven by passion, was larger than his failings -- just as this production is larger than its small office space and the indifferent workers who allow themselves to enter an American tragedy. The glittery musical adaptation on Broadway, trying hard to impress, is its counterpoint.
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