Word: nicked
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...reader (Scott Shepherd), who transforms from an everyman office drone into “Gatsby” narrator Nick Carraway, casually begins reading the book on the pretext of waiting for his ancient, uncooperative computer to start up. Despite receiving odd looks from fellow employees, he continues reciting the text aloud. Soon, the play subtly shifts, and each one of the nobody office workers is cast in a role, drafted into the reader’s imaginary Fitzgeraldian world, where the romance, humor, and brutality of “Gatsby” are all poignantly real...
...Fitzgerald’s humor. Shepherd manages to draw out the wit and sarcasm of the narrator, capitalizing on dramatic pauses and pointed glances at the audience. As he reads Fitzgerald’s exposition aloud, his earnest and deadpan drawl meshes well with the reflective musings of Midwesterner Nick, and Shepherd is instantly likeable—a necessary quality for an actor who will be speaking nearly non-stop for six hours...
...Where Nick is a detached observer in the novel, Shepherd’s narrator is the centerpiece of the production. Although Shepherd has the novel memorized, his intentionally stilted delivery—as if he really is reading “Gatsby” out loud for the first time—never betrays this feat until the end of the second half, in which he goes off-book for nearly an hour...
What is most remarkable about Shepherd, however, is not his memory, but his ability to evoke such complex emotion—he never forgets his performance in the mass of complicated text he must deliver. Even when his personality flashes from Nick to office worker, his seemingly inconsequential gestures are nuanced and deliberate. Shepherd looks continuously at a clock throughout the play, a tic that reveals its portentous significance when Nick recounts the timeline of Gatsby’s death. Shepherd’s skillful handling of his role is an accomplishment that dwarfs the rest of the company...
...similarly underdeveloped—a fact most evident in a critical scene when all the major characters are gathered together in a hotel room, and Tom Buchanan (Gary Wilmes) finally realizes that Daisy loves Gatsby. The actors are helped tremendously by smart blocking—Jordan Baker and Nick, like spectators, face a triangle formed by the aforementioned trio—yet Vasquez fails to translate her torn anguish, Fletcher his overwhelming yearning, or Wilmes his bridled fury...