Gatsby New money. Charming. Determined.

Daisy’s lover, once a very poor man, he reinvented himself

as Jay Gatsby and has spent the last five years acquiring enough wealth (through various means) for

Daisy. He bought a house across from hers and has been planning the right moment to meet her again.

Standard American accent. Late 20’s.

Gatsby talks to Nick and the audience in the largest room in the house.

GATSBY Look here, old sport What's your opinion of me, anyhow?

NICK That’s one of the strangest questions I’ve ever been asked. I’ve only just met you.

GATSBY Well, I'm going to tell you something about my life - I don't want you to get a wrong idea

of me from all these stories you hear. I’ll tell you God's truth. I am the son of some

wealthy people in the Middle West - all dead now. I was brought up in America but

educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years.

It is a family tradition.

(to AUDIENCE) Tell me, have you ever been to Oxford, Old Sport? Isn’t it a beautiful

place?

[GATSBY improvises with the AUDIENCE about how beautiful Oxford is. Perhaps he asks them to
contribute to a description of the place.]

NICK What part of the middle-west are you from?

GATSBY San Francisco.

NICK I see.

GATSBY My family all died and I came into a good deal of money

After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe - Paris,Venice, Rome -

collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself only,

and trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago.

Then came the war, old sport. It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I

seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission as first lieutenant when it

began. In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that

there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn't advance. We

stayed there two days and two nights, a hundred and thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns,

and when the infantry came up at last they found the insignia of three German divisions

among the piles of dead. I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government

gave me a decoration-even Montenegro, little Montenegro down on the Adriatic sea.

ACT 2 SCENE 4.1 - JAZZ BAR

DAISY arrives to have tea with Nick. A tea table has been set up with two chairs. The last person she is

expecting to see is GATSBY. GATSBY appears, DAISY notices him for the first time. It is electric.

DAISY I certainly am awfully glad to see you again.

GATSBY (To audience) We’ve met before.

DAISY We haven’t met for many years.

GATSBY Five years this November.

DAISY It’s good to see you Jay. How have you been?

GATSBY My house looks well doesn't it.

DAISY It’s a long time since I last saw your face. Do you still have your Lieutenants uniform?

GATSBY (Salutes.)

DAISY You looked at me like every girl wants to be looked at some time. You remember sitting

with me in me in my little white roadster.

GATSBY Tea. (He takes a drink.)

Did you get a chance to see the house as you drove in?

DAISY Yes I did Jay. I adore it!

GATSBY Did you see how the whole front of it catches the light? Or the kiss-me-at-the-gate by the

marble steps? Daisy you should see the bathroom – it has a sunken bath which could fit

an elephant. The tapestry in the hall once belonged to the King of England.

DAISY I love it but I don't see how you live here all alone.

GATSBY I keep it full of interesting people night and day, people who do interesting things,

celebrated people.

DAISY (To AUDIENCE) It must be nice to be celebrated... What do you do now Jay?
GATSBY Oh, I've been in several things. I was in the drug store business and then I was in the oil

business. But I'm not in either one now.

DAISY You always were full of secrets Jay Gatsby. Maybe that's why I fell in love with you…

What brings you to West Egg?

GATSBY If it wasn't for the mist we could see your house across the bay. You always have a green

light that burns all night long at the end of your dock.

DAISY Look at that. I'd like to get one of those big pink clouds and put you in it and push you

around.
Daisy Old Money. Evervessant. A socialite. Has been married to Tom for 4 years, they have a three year

old daughter. Their marriage is rocky and Tom frequently has affairs, it wouldn’t be socially acceptable

for Daisy to leave Tom. Standard American accent. Mid 20’s.

ACT 2 SCENE 4.1 - JAZZ BAR

DAISY arrives to have tea with Nick. A tea table has been set up with two chairs. The last person she is

expecting to see is GATSBY. GATSBY appears, DAISY notices him for the first time. It is electric.

DAISY I certainly am awfully glad to see you again.

GATSBY (To audience) We’ve met before.

DAISY We haven’t met for many years.

GATSBY Five years this November.

DAISY It’s good to see you Jay. How have you been?

GATSBY My house looks well doesn't it.

DAISY It’s a long time since I last saw your face. Do you still have your Lieutenants uniform?

GATSBY (Salutes.)
DAISY You looked at me like every girl wants to be looked at some time. You remember sitting

with me in me in my little white roadster.

GATSBY Tea. (He takes a drink.)

Did you get a chance to see the house as you drove in?

DAISY Yes I did Jay. I adore it!

GATSBY Did you see how the whole front of it catches the light? Or the kiss-me-at-the-gate by the

marble steps? Daisy you should see the bathroom – it has a sunken bath which could fit

an elephant. The tapestry in the hall once belonged to the King of England.

DAISY I love it but I don't see how you live here all alone.

GATSBY I keep it full of interesting people night and day, people who do interesting things,

celebrated people.

DAISY (To AUDIENCE) It must be nice to be celebrated... What do you do now Jay?

GATSBY Oh, I've been in several things. I was in the drug store business and then I was in the oil

business. But I'm not in either one now.

DAISY You always were full of secrets Jay Gatsby. Maybe that's why I fell in love with you…

What brings you to West Egg?

GATSBY If it wasn't for the mist we could see your house across the bay. You always have a green

light that burns all night long at the end of your dock.

DAISY Look at that. I'd like to get one of those big pink clouds and put you in it and push you

around.
Tom and Daisy post car crash

Daisy has accidentally killed Myrtle, she doesn’t know who it was she hit with the car. Tom rushes to find
Daisy, he knows Myrtle has been killed but discovers in this moment it was Daisy. They are desperate,
their lives are crashing down around them.

DAISY (To AUDIENCE) I swear I didn’t mean to hit her. I felt so awful after that dreadful row I

thought the driving would calm my nerves and she just came running out of nowhere.

TOM (shouting on his approach) DAISY! DAISY!

TOM enters.

DAISY Tom,I hit her and I drove away, we’ve got to tell the police what I did.

TOM No!

DAISY Why did you make me get in the car with him! And now she’s dead-

TOM …

DAISY I felt so awful after that dreadful row, I thought the driving would calm my nerves, and

this woman she just came running out of nowhere and I couldn’t stop, I felt the shock as

I hit her body.

TOM pulls DAISY Into her, tries to soothe her, she is in shock.

TOM Now listen you were not driving that car, you were here the whole night, drinking with

our friends.

DAISY No I was driving because I can see her lying there … what are we going to do?

TOM Listen. You were not driving that car

DAISY If I wasn’t driving then who was?

TOM I will take care of that.

DAISY You know it all happened so fast, but it seemed as though she knew me, like she wanted

to tell me something…
TOM Stop, look we’re going to go South, start again.

DAISY I don’t want to run away.

TOM We have to.

DAISY (turning on him) NO! No more women Tom!

TOM Daisy you get these ideas in your head…

DAISY No. More. Women! Swear it now in front of all these people.

TOM I swear, I will be better to you from now on.

ACT 4 SCENE 3.1 - DAISY’S ROOM

Gatsby has almost killed Tom and Daisy has killed Myrtle. DAISY speaks to the AUDIENCE, Tom
has just left promising he will change his ways. She is processing what has happened and
contemplating her future. This happens in a more intimate space for 10 audience.

DAISY Do you think Tom will be better?

AUDIENCE Responds.

DAISY You know Tom couldn’t even wait for our honeymoon to be over before he was playing

around. There was this woman at the hotel we were staying at in Santa Barbara, she

worked there or something. You probably read about it, it made all the papers. He

crashed the car one night and she was with him in it. It broke her arm and broke my

heart. So now I’m wondering what I’m going to do? You know when I saw Jay tonight I

thought I had a second chance, because I wished I had done everything in the world to

be with him. But I wasn’t enough was I? I wasn’t enough for Jay like I’m not enough for

Tom.
Tom Old money. Used to having his own way. Charming. One of the richest men in America, Yale

educated. Athletic. Having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Standard American Accent. 30 years old.

TOM

Tom is left in a ‘stand off’ with Gatsby while they wait for Daisy, the atmosphere is tense. Tom addresses

the room

I read somewhere that the sun is getting hotter every year.

It seems that pretty soon the earth’s going to fall in to the sun.

Or - wait a minute - is it just the opposite - the sun is getting colder every year.

I have stables. With horses. I brought a whole team of polo horses here with me.

Twelve polo ponies.

And I’ll tell you - I’ve heard of making a garage out of a stable, but I’m the only man I know who’s made a

stable out of a garage.

(He calls for Wilson, who doesn’t appear.)

Wilson?

Wilson - fetch my car!

What, do I have to do it myself? I’m not just stood here admiring the view.

You know, when I left Chicago, they wept. They lined the streets and they wept. For me
Tom and Daisy post car crash

Daisy has accidentally killed Myrtle, she doesn’t know who it was she hit with the car. Tom rushes to find
Daisy, he knows Myrtle has been killed but discovers in this moment it was Daisy. They are desperate,
their lives are crashing down around them.

DAISY (To AUDIENCE) I swear I didn’t mean to hit her. I felt so awful after that dreadful row I

thought the driving would calm my nerves and she just came running out of nowhere.

TOM (shouting on his approach) DAISY! DAISY!

TOM enters.

DAISY Tom,I hit her and I drove away, we’ve got to tell the police what I did.

TOM No!

DAISY Why did you make me get in the car with him! And now she’s dead-

TOM …

DAISY I felt so awful after that dreadful row, I thought the driving would calm my nerves, and

this woman she just came running out of nowhere and I couldn’t stop, I felt the shock as

I hit her body.

TOM pulls DAISY Into her, tries to soothe her, she is in shock.

TOM Now listen you were not driving that car, you were here the whole night, drinking with

our friends.

DAISY No I was driving because I can see her lying there … what are we going to do?

TOM Listen. You were not driving that car

DAISY If I wasn’t driving then who was?

TOM I will take care of that.

DAISY You know it all happened so fast, but it seemed as though she knew me, like she wanted

to tell me something…
TOM Stop, look we’re going to go South, start again.

DAISY I don’t want to run away.

TOM We have to.

DAISY (turning on him) NO! No more women Tom!

TOM Daisy you get these ideas in your head…

DAISY No. More. Women! Swear it now in front of all these people.

TOM I swear, I will be better to you from now on.

Jordan Old money. A socialite. Lives with Tom and Daisy at the weekends. She is a celebrity and golfer,

she is the life and soul of the party. Standard American Accent. Early 20’s.

JORDAN has gathered the audience around her and NICK to tell him this story, in this immersive

production it is for the benefit of the audience rather than Nick.

JORDAN Now listen…

[JORDAN acts out the following with various members of the assembled AUDIENCE, casting them as

characters in her story.]

One October day in nineteen-seventeen, I was walking along from one place to another,

half on the sidewalks and half on the lawns. I was happier on the lawns because I had on

shoes from England with rubber nobs on the soles that bit into the soft ground. I had on

a new plaid skirt also that blew a little in the wind, and whenever this happened the red,

white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said

tut-tut-tut-tut in a disapproving way. The largest of the banners and the largest of the

lawns belonged to Daisy's house. She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by

far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville. She dressed in white, and had a

little white roadster, and all day long the telephone rang in her house and excited young
 officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolising her that night.

When I came opposite her house that morning her white roadster was beside the curb,

and she was sitting in it with a young lieutenant I had never seen before. They were so

engrossed in each other that she didn't see me until I was five feet away.

She called to me unexpectedly. I was flattered that she wanted to speak to me, because

of all the older girls I admired Daisy the most. She asked me if I were going to the Red

Cross that day to make bandages. I was. Well, then, would I tell them that she couldn't

come that day? The young lieutenant looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way

that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic

to me I have remembered the incident ever since.

Myrtle has just been killed, the party is over, Jordan doesn’t want to be alone. Jordan catches Nick as he

tries to leave, this is a private conversation that happens publicly.

JORDAN Nick Carraway. You weren’t so nice to me after that car

accident.

NICK How could that have mattered then?

JORDAN Suppose we got to breakfast tomorrow?

NICK No, I don’t think tomorrow. I have various -

JORDAN Yeah. You threw me over. Right. That is a new experience for me. I felt giddy for a

moment. Do you remember that time we were talking about cars? You said that I was a

bad driver.

NICK Not exactly.

JORDAN Well I met another bad driver, didn’t I? It was foolish of me to make such a wrong guess.
 I thought that you were a fairly honest, straightforward kind of person. I thought it was

your secret pride.

NICK I’m thirty. I’m five years too old to lie to myself and to call it honour.

JORDAN Are you in love with me?

NICK I'm only half in love with you.

Nick Daisy’s poor relation. The unreliable narrator of the piece. A young man from Minnesota who, after

being educated at yale and fighting in WW1 goes to New York to learn the Bond

Business. He gets swept up in Gatsby’s desires. Standard American accent. 30’s.

Nick speech is delivered to the whole room. This is quite far into the show and the stakes are ramping up

for all the characters.

NICK About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad

for a quarter of a mile. This is the Valley of Ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like

wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses

and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men,

who move dimly and already crumbling through powdery air. Above the grey land and

the spasms of bleak dust you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T J Eckleburg,

blue and gigantic - their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead,

from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.

Evidently some wild wag of an occulist set them there to fatten his practice, and then

sank himself down into eternal blindness, or moved away. But his eyes brood over the

solemn dumping ground.

Myrtle has just been killed, the party is over, Jordan doesn’t want to be alone. Jordan catches Nick as he

tries to leave, this is a private conversation that happens publicly.

JORDAN Nick Carraway. You weren’t so nice to me after that car

accident.

NICK How could that have mattered then?

JORDAN Suppose we got to breakfast tomorrow?

NICK No, I don’t think tomorrow. I have various -

JORDAN Yeah. You threw me over. Right. That is a new experience for me. I felt giddy for a

moment. Do you remember that time we were talking about cars? You said that I was a

bad driver.

NICK Not exactly.

JORDAN Well I met another bad driver, didn’t I? It was foolish of me to make such a wrong guess.

I thought that you were a fairly honest, straightforward kind of person. I thought it was

your secret pride.

NICK I’m thirty. I’m five years too old to lie to myself and to call it honour.

JORDAN Are you in love with me?

NICK I'm only half in love with you.

George Wilson a beaten man bogged down by his unfortunate financial situation. In our production he

runs the bar for Gatsby. He represents the American dream, is well meaning and hopeful but struggles to

give Myrtle what she needs. New York Accent. 30’s.

George has just arranged tea for Gatsby and Daisy it has been a huge success, encouraged by its success

he catches Myrtle as she is leaving, he is hopeful for their future. This happens for the majority of the

audience, so use them when you can.

WILSON

Myrtle. Where the hell have you been?

We’ve just talked about this.

I mean, god, I don’t wanna row. I never wanna row

But you gotta give me something here Myrtle. I can’t get all this just on my own.

Sure - I know. You want a dog, you want a place of our own and you want to look out the

windows in the morning at breakfast. You want to go to Monte Carlo - you want to go to where

the sun is always rising. I know that. And by god, Myrtle, I’ll take you there in a heartbeat.

But, Myrtle, I ain’t some hot shot up in the sky scraper and the three piece suit. But I am an

American and we got the whole world there for the taking. But I ain’t going nowhere without

you by my side.
 You hear, Myrtle - without you right here next to me

MYRTLE arrives into their apartment. She is unaware George is suspicious of her affair and

after a row with TOM is feeling pretty frustrated with her situation.

WILSON You finally remembered where you live.

MYRTLE Yeah, It’s still a dump.

WILSON Come on. You just gotta trust me, I told you about the coupé, if that don’t work out we’ll

find something else -

MYRTLE What I have to spend my whole life sitting around waiting for another one of your

goddamn empty promises George?

WILSON We sang together tonight!

MYRTLE For the first time in like forever.

WILSON You know I loved singing with you tonight.

MYRTLE No, you loved singing with Jordan Baker tonight. You got a thing for her? A thing for

Daisy? Is it the money?

WILSON Who is he, Myrtle?

MYRTLE ...

WILSON (to AUDIENCE) You know who he is?

MYRTLE Come on, leave the fella alone George.

WILSON You save yourself the embarrassment Myrtle, and tell me his name, before I make them

say it. Who is it?

Pause. She says nothing. WILSON takes out the dog leash. Confronts MYRTLE with it.

WILSON Is it the same person who got you this? MYRTLE No.

WILSON What the hell is this? Where’d you get it?

MYRTLE I dunno where I got it. I just. I just got it.

WILSON You think I’m so stupid. Maybe you can fool me Myrtle, but you can’t fool God. God sees

everything. God sees everything you been doing.

MYRTLE I don’t need God to see me George, I need you! It’s like I’m just part of the furniture,

except we don’t even got any furniture. I never get nothing pretty, or good, or beautiful. I never get to go

to the party, and I’m too good for this. I want more. I need more George.Do you see that? Do you? Do

you see how unhappy I am?

MYRTLE WILSON married to George and Tom Bucchanons Mistress, she has aspirations and dreams that

are bigger than her unhappy marriage to George. New York accent. 30’s.

MYRTLE has arrived in the boudoir to join NICK and TOM, NICK asks MYRTLE how she and TOM met.

MYRTLE We met on a train actually. I was going up to New York to see my sister Kitty, I go up

there every once in a while, we get dressed up, we go out, have a good time. Anyways,

so I get on the train and it is packed, there is nowhere to sit except those two little seats

at the end of the carriage, always the last ones left. (she acts the next section opposite an

AUDIENCE member, casting them as TOM) So I sit down, and I look up and sat dead

opposite me, there is this man. And my God what a man. Beautiful big shoulders, patent

leather shoes, dress suit, big thick glossy moustache and I just can’t take my eyes off of

him, you know what I mean? And I’m looking at him, and he looks up and catches my eye

back, and I look away, and then I look back, and he looks back, and I have to pretend I’m

looking at the advertisements behind his head, and this goes on all the way to New York.

So, when we get there we pull in to the platform, and I’m there stood waiting for the

doors, minding my own business, and all of a sudden I feel this body pressing up against
 me (TOM plays his part in the bit of the story and comes up behind her as if they were on

a train), and I can feel his belt buckle, and I can feel his…. And I’m like ‘Hey mister, do I

need to call the police here?’ But you know what he does, he takes one look at me, he

looks right into my eyes, right into my heart, right into my soul actually and he knows I’m

lying. And I am so excited that when I get into a taxi cab to go to a hotel with him I hardly

know what I’m doing, but all I keep thinking is ‘you don’t live forever, you don’t live

forever.’

MYRTLE arrives into their apartment. She is unaware George is suspicious of her affair and after a row

with TOM is feeling pretty frustrated with her situation.

WILSON You finally remembered where you live.

MYRTLE Yeah, It’s still a dump.

WILSON Come on. You just gotta trust me, I told you about the coupé, if that don’t work out we’ll

find something else -

MYRTLE What I have to spend my whole life sitting around waiting for another one of your

goddamn empty promises George?

WILSON We sang together tonight!

MYRTLE For the first time in like forever.

WILSON You know I loved singing with you tonight.

MYRTLE No, you loved singing with Jordan Baker tonight. You got a thing for her? A thing for

Daisy? Is it the money?

WILSON Who is he, Myrtle?

MYRTLE ...

WILSON (to AUDIENCE) You know who he is?

MYRTLE Come on, leave the fella alone George.

WILSON You save yourself the embarrassment Myrtle, and tell me his name, before I make them

say it. Who is it?

Pause. She says nothing. WILSON takes out the dog leash. Confronts MYRTLE with it.

WILSON Is it the same person who got you this? MYRTLE No.

WILSON What the hell is this? Where’d you get it?

MYRTLE I dunno where I got it. I just. I just got it.

WILSON You think I’m so stupid. Maybe you can fool me Myrtle, but you can’t fool God. God sees

everything. God sees everything you been doing.

MYRTLE I don’t need God to see me George, I need you! It’s like I’m just part of the furniture,

except we don’t even got any furniture. I never get nothing pretty, or good, or beautiful. I never get to go

to the party, and I’m too good for this. I want more. I need more George.Do you see that? Do you? Do

you see how unhappy I am?