Elevator Repair Service
Gatz
Featured image
Scott Shepherd and Annie McNamara in Gatz
Photo: Gene PittmanThrillingly theatrical and moving... the company’s infectious love for Fitzgerald’s poetry makes you realize the shortcomings of almost every other staged adaptation.
Presented in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival
Gatz brings together the literary virtuosity of an American masterpiece and the mischievous creativity of one of New York's most celebrated experimental companies, Elevator Repair Service. Gatz is a bold staging of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, verbatim and unabridged. The work develops out of the simple beginning of a man sitting alone one morning in a dilapidated office reading out loud from a ragged paperback into a unique and transporting six-hour theatrical event. This ambitious, hilarious, strangely insightful work is a memorable experience not to be missed.
Running time: 7 1/2 hours, including two short intermissions and a dinner break
Jim Fletcher in Gatz
Photo: Chris BeirensAbout the Artist
Elevator Repair Service, a theater ensemble directed by John Collins, combines elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography. Their inspired and transformative experimentation has been widely applauded in the New York experimental theater world, with engagements across the US and Europe. The MCA is proud to present ERS in their Chicago debut.
Scott Shepherd and Kate Scelsa in Gatz
Photo: Chris BeirensDownloads
Funding
Commissioned in part by the MCA with support by the National Performance Network Creation Fund.