February 16, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments

This is a public health announcement: This play is eight hours long. Not seven, not nine, eight. As you were.
GATZ, from New York’s Elevator Repair Service theatre company (cool name, even longer play) is a mash-up of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (‘voice full of money’, etc. We can say that with some aplomb because we have an MA in English Literature. And not from one of those shit places either!) and the life of an office worker, who stumbles – as one does – across a copy of the oft-quoted tome and starts reading it out loud. Hence the eight hour thing. It has been described by various describers as ‘astonishing’, ‘brilliant’, and ‘long’. And it’s on at the Noel Coward Theatre from 8th June until 15th July, but because of the ‘astonishing’ and ‘brilliant’ thing, advance booking is suggested. The ‘long’ thing, however, never really worked as a threat to us. And if you hate it, that’s eight hours of your life you’ll never get back. Not for love, money or toffee apples.

ps. Eight hours!