GATZ, the inspired stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby created by groundbreaking theater company Elevator Repair Service, is back for a limited run at The Public Theater. As you may recall, not a single word of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece was cut for this adaptation, which lasts nearly seven hours, plus multiple intermissions and a leisurely dinner break. This radical approach to the text presents a rare opportunity to surf Fitzgerald's masterpiece in one continuous rolling wave, and it's enthralling.
Actor Scott Shepherd, who by now knows all 49,000 words of the novel by heart, has gotten most of the press for his uncanny mental acumen, but GATZ is an ensemble piece through and through, with precise and funny performances given by everyone on the team. The title role, for instance, is played by downtown theater regular Jim Fletcher (perhaps you saw him recently in The Early Plays), who brings an unconventional mix of menace and daffiness to the iconic part. As it happens, the role of Gatsby's father is played by Fletcher's real-life father Dr. Ross Fletcher, a non-actor who happens to be the Chief of Staff at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC. Not exactly a lightweight.
We recently sat down with father and son to talk about the strange turn of events that resulted in them working together at this point in their lives. (Due to popular demand, the GATZ been extended through May 13th. Tickets are $160, but you can also try for $40 rush standby tickets by putting your name on a wait-list the day of the show.)
How much acting experience did you have prior to doing this play, Dr. Fletcher? Dr. Ross Fletcher: My acting experience prior to this show? Zero. I do have experience speaking on stage, going off slides, I've done that. I teach, I do research. I'm a doctor down in Washington, DC, where I still have a full time job as a cardiologist. I'm the chief of staff at the VA [Veterans Affairs] hospital. But it seemed like they were looking for someone who looked like Jim's father and I fit that bill.
I play the role of the Jim's father in the play. And the fascinating thing to me is that Jim, who is my son, is also Jim in the play. And the lines like "Where have they got Jimmy?" and "Jimmy was bound to get ahead" just fit. Once I heard that, I was like, can't resist. But when the director was asking me about whether I could do this or not, I said, "Well I've never done this before and I might not be able to. And next to me was Shana, Jim's daughter, and she was 6 at the time (she's 13 now). And she said, "Do it, Grandpa, you could do it." And I said, "Someday I'm gonna say 'Do it, Shana, you could do it' " and if I say no to this, she's going to say no to my request. So she gets full credit for my involvement in this show.
Jim Fletcher: I didn't know about it until it was a done deal. They were like, "He's gonna be in the show."
(Joan Marcus)
They did an end run around you to cast him? How is that possible?
Jim Fletcher: Well my dad always came to the shows from the time I started. And I hadn't been acting that long, maybe about 6, 7 years. And he always enjoyed it so everybody knew him. He's very gregarious and sociable, and open, and so they all knew him so they asked him. He was their first choice.
Dr. Fletcher, at what point did it become clear that you could do this?
Dr. Fletcher: Well, as I say, when they mentioned it, I ran to the Strand bookstore, I pulled out the book and said, "Well, this isn't terribly long, I might be able to memorize those lines." And I have been excited by theater and I love watching Jim in theater; I've seen everything he's ever played in, I believe. And so I'm a big fan.
Jim Fletcher: He used to take me to the theater all the time growing up in Maryland. I was always sort of mystified by theater. How do you do it, you know, seven days in a row or something like that.
Dr. Fletcher: But I still wasn't sure I could memorize those lines. That's when one of my friends said, "Well you memorized the Krebs cycle, didn't you?" And I said, "Yes, but it's a little different. I don't have to produce it."
Jim Fletcher: Krebs cycle?
Dr. Fletcher: It's a very complicated chemistry system for how you use and make energy for your body. And you have to do that as a physician and be able to regurgitate it back, but it's not quite the same, because, you know, there is no emotion in returning that piece of information to paper or anything else. Where there is quite a bit of emotion in trying to be the father who is grieving for his son.
Dr. Ross Fletcher and Scott Shepherd in GATZ, with Jim Fletcher portraying a dead Jay Gatsby on the couch behind them.
Did director John Collins give you any kind of feedback during the rehearsal process?
Dr. Fletcher: He doesn't really guide you strongly, but if he sees you go in a specific direction, he reinforces it and says, "That was really good." An example: one of my lines is "Gatz, is my name" and one night I said, "Gatz, is MY name"—meaning that my son changed his name, but I'm not going to change my name. And he said, "Do that, do it that way!" And I've done it that way ever since. And I've been in a lot of performances since 2005 and I haven't missed a single show. No matter where in the world the show is.
Jim Fletcher: But, you know, from working with Rich [Maxwell, playwright and director], you realize that someone who's never acted before is not necessarily at a debilitating disadvantage. [Maxwell] really demonstrates that it's a level playing field and that beginners have certain advantages, in a way, and so they can bring that in and it's completely as valid as—it's not a matter of trying to copy the veterans or anything. I'm not particularly veteran myself.
When you first heard this idea, that the play would be performed with every word, nothing cut, what was your reaction?
Jim Fletcher: That's what made me want to do it. Yeah, aside from wanting to—You know, one of the things that made me really want to go into the theater was to work with people over and over again, trying to repeat something, and what does that mean in the presence of an audience? And I just knew nothing about it ,but was very interested. But the other thing, by that point, I was also very curious about what makes a novel. And so this was, if nothing else, the chance to hear a novel over and over and over again in one sitting. It could have been almost any novel. But once we got into this I started to realize what's really special about this particular novel.
What is that?
Jim Fletcher: Well, it seems to lend itself to performance in a way that not all novels do. Very few novels do. When John was directing it, they had already built most of the first half when I joined in. And then we started working on the second half and he said, "This thing is making itself." He was very excited, but he was like, "It's just popping right into place." You know, Fitzgerald ran into trouble at Princeton because he was spending too much time working on the school farce. He wrote plays before he was even a non-prose writer. And there's something about it, you know, when it's theater you see why this play so funny. Almost nobody, when they read it by themselves, finds it to be particularly funny. But it's not us making it. It obviously has something when it's in an audience situation. I don't know why it does that, but it certainly lends itself to an audience situation. It flies. It really flies. And it reveals things that you really didn't see in your own private reading.
Dr. Fletcher, have any of your colleagues or friends come to see this? Are they jealous of your show biz lifestyle?
Dr. Fletcher: They can hardly believe that I'm doing it. Those who have come to see it have thoroughly enjoyed the play and are ecstatic and enjoy the fact that I've been able to do it. I get introduced, not infrequently these days, not as Dr. Fletcher, but Dr. Fletcher Who's in the Plays Up in New York. So it's become part of my persona, since I've been doing it for about 7 years now. But they know how important it is and they have been helping me. Obviously, I'm not gone long when we're in New York. I leave on Wednesday afternoons and Friday afternoons and I'm back at work at 8 o'clock every single morning. Sometimes I take a train at 3 in the morning to get to Washington, D.C. on time because the trains sort of stop here by 11, but we get there.
Jim Fletcher: The other thing is that he is a very public figure now as Chief of Staff of the V.A. hospital. When I was growing up he was Chief of Cardiology, now he's Chief of Staff. So it's like he gets to meet with Congressmen and committees and stuff like that. But he never had this beard before; he had to grow it for the play, but the people at the hospital like it so much they say keep it.
Dr. Fletcher with his sons; Jim is at right.
Dr. Fletcher: When I first decided to do it, I did ask permission of my supervisor to do two things: one, to be involved with the play—and I told him what kind of timing that would be. Especially when I go oversees it's a little longer but still not terribly long absences. But I also asked permission to grow a beard, because to incessantly stroke your sparse gray beard so much they couldn't take my coat off is a thing that required something to be yanking on. And since then pictures that have been taken of me and printed and so forth have the beard, and I'm afraid they may not recognize me if I happen to shave it off at some point.
Jim Fletcher: And sometimes, like in Chicago, we were going on and I'm getting messages from my mom saying, "Uh, yeah, he just took off." So he's in the air when the play has already started.
Flying from D.C. to Chicago?
Jim Fletcher: It happens all the time.
What would happen if the plane was delayed?
Dr. Fletcher: You have to be an optimist to be doing anything close to what I'm doing. I actually get on the train in Washington at 3, and the play opens at 3. I arrive at intermission.
Jim Fletcher: That's how long the play is!
Dr. Fletcher: And I go on, of course, in what we call the 4th quarter.
Do you think your relationship as father and son in real life has changed at all since you had this opportunity?
Jim Fletcher: Well, it's been just amazing to have a reason and a way to spend so much time with my father at this point in my life. My forties. And so I can say I spent a great deal of my forties with my dad working. Who does that, unless you join the family business? But it's like he joined my business. He followed in my footsteps. And so it's like, how else could that happen? I mean we've been to Australia, we've been to Singapore, we've had long tours, and not much time goes by without us getting back together again and working. We go out to eat, we've shared rooms, hotel rooms. It's fantastic. At first it was odd to have my dad around when we're all eating, and working out, and warming up and stuff. It was odd because it was two different worlds. It was my parent world and then the people I work with. And now, all that strangeness is completely gone and I love it. I'm very, very grateful for it.
It's extremely rare.
Dr. Fletcher: It is rare and I think it takes a very generous boy to do that. And Jim has been generous all his life. To be involved in his profession is an honor, a privilege and I thoroughly enjoy it. I never back off and I've always liked watching Jim from all ages, but to get the opportunity to see him in his profession, and see how he acts—and that's not just in the play itself but there are many dramas that take place outside the play—I just love watching how he responds to those. I mean, I would not have had that opportunity to know exactly what it takes and now I know what it takes.
Jim Fletcher: When we're on tour or something everybody pretty much ends up at the bar before going back to the hotel room, and he's usually—not that he's a big drinker, he's not, but he does hang out. And so I usually leave before he does. "Goodnight Dad!"
Dr. Ross Fletcher: It's been the life.
Editor's note: The day after the interview, Jim Fletcher sent us this email:
I just want to add, it didn't occur to me to explain the kind of work my dad has done at the VA Hospital system. He and his colleagues there have pioneered, since the 1970s, the use of computer technology in creating a viable electronic health record for all veterans, dramatically improving the quality of care, and allowing landmark medical studies to take place over multiple decades. (for example, blood pressure studies in a very large population over several decades, or studies of predictors of heart disease).
This work is just now becoming central to the discussion of our health care system in general, and requires him to be something of a national spokesperson, of late. And his stage appearances have coincided with this development. in parallel, rather than in conflict. Mutually enhancing endeavors. Doctor-actor. Something I've never seen before. And he routinely does a GATZ performance, gets out of costume, gets on the 3am train back to Washington (if he misses the 11:00 p.m.) and goes straight to the hospital from the train. He has always worked like that. Non-stop and happy to do it that way. I can imagine no other way I could have spent so much time with him at this point in our lives except by us working together.
