The Great Gatsby

Story by F. Scott FitzgeraldScored & Adapted by P. Eastman

CHARACTERS(M) - Male (F) - Female Actor 1: (M) NickActor 2: (F) Daisy; Neighbor; Maid; LucilleActor 3: (F) Jordan; MyrtleActor 4: (M) Tom; Woolfsheim; (Wilson)Actor 5: (M) Gatsby; Wilson; Butler; Policeman

Pit Band (Orchestra)FluteReed 1 – Clarinet or Alto SaxReed 2 – Tenor Sax or Baritone SaxTrumpet 1Trumpet 2PianoDrums

Short SummaryMidwest native Nick Carraway arrives in 1922 New York in search of the American dream. Nick, a would-be writer, moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering husband, Tom. Thus, Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and -- as he bears witness to their illusions and deceits -- pens a tale of impossible love, dreams, and tragedy.

Character AnalysisFive actors dressed in smart 20’s eveningwear and thick black-rimmed glasses. Whenever the actors are playing minor roles, they wear the thick black glasses. They are chorus, the observers, the commentators, the dressers, and judging eyes of T.J. Eckleberg.

Parker Eastman Adaptations/Arrangements©Copyright 2015

Act ISpring 1922, West Egg, Long Island

Scene 1: Tom Buchannan’s Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay.

(Overture begins to play. Lights slowly rise on stage. Tom Buchannan, dressed in riding clothes, D.L. [Tom is a sturdy, straw-haired man; 30 years of age, and has a hard mouth and a supercilious manner.])

Tom: (Nick enters stage L.) Nick! How was the ride across the bay? It’s good to see you.Nick: (Extending hand) Tom... Good to see you. (Tom and Nick shake hands) The ride was fine. The waves were a little choppy though.Tom: That’s too bad. It’s been a while hasn’t it? How long has it been?Nick: Well, we graduated in 1915. (Nick counting on fingers) So, it must have been seven years.Tom: Oh yeah. That’s right. You’re looking good.Nick: Thanks. You too. (looking around) Very impressive…Tom: (‘bragging’) Yeah, I’ve got a nice place here. (pointing D.L.) See that over there. That’s half an acre of genuine (I-Tally-Anne) Italian garden. (Looking at Nick) I’ll take you down there later to show you the beautiful roses.Nick: It’s exquisite.Tom: The place belongs to Demaine, the oil man.Nick: Really?Tom: (Turning Nick towards D.R.) Go inside. Daisy has been looking forward to your seeing you for days. (Spotlight on Nick and Tom as they walk D.R.; Grand Mansion begins to play as stage goes black.)

(Stage is set to the mansion. Couch D.L. with an end table L. of it; C.R. is a dining room table with a center-piece on it; Daisy sitting on couch reading a magazine; Jordan sitting to the right of her)

Daisy: (Lights slowly rise; Nick and Tom walk in) I’m… I’m paralyzed with happiness!!! (Daisy runs into Nick’s arms [a hug])Nick: (Half laugh as Daisy hits his arms) H-Hello Daisy.Daisy: (Looking toward Jordan) This is my friend Jordan Baker. (Jordan looks at Nick and nods imperceptibly)Nick: Hi… (Jordan about to get up) Don’t worry. You stay there. No need to get up. (Jordan lays back on couch)

Daisy: So Nick, how are you? Listen, you have to tell me everything that’s happened to you. I want to know everything. My my… (Looking at Nick) You look great. You were just a boy all those years ago.Nick: I’m fine… (Daisy interrupts Nick)Daisy: I have such a wonderful memory of the times we had in Chicago. You remember?Nick: Yeah. Well, I stopped there for a few days on my way out here. Everyone sends their love.Daisy: (Ecstatic) Do they miss me?Nick: The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath. And, there’s a persistent wail all night long along the north shore.Daisy: How gorgeous!!!! (To Tom) Tom, can we go tomorrow? (Tom snarls; Daisy to Nick) You ought to see the baby.Nick: I’d like to.Daisy: She’s asleep. She’s three now. Have you ever seen her?Nick: Never.Daisy: Well, you ought to see her. She’s…Tom: (Interrupting) So what are you doing with yourself Nick?Nick: I’m a bond man.Tom: Who with? If I might inquire.Nick: Certainly. It’s with a new company. Bloomberg and…Tom: (Interrupts) Never heard of them.Nick: (Slightly irritated) Well you will. As long as you stay in the east.Tom: Oh, I’ll stay in the east. Don’t you worry about that. (Tom glances at Daisy then back at Nick) I’d be a god-damned fool to live anywhere else. (Jordan sits up)Jordan: (As she sits up) Absolutely! (Stretches, yawns, etc.; gets up) Oh. I’m stiff. I’ve been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember.Daisy: Don’t look at me. I’ve been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.Jordan: No thanks. (A butler passes by and she grabs two cocktails off of his tray) I’m absolutely in training.Tom: (Looking at Jordan incredulously) You are! How you ever get anything done is beyond me. (Tom downs a glass of whiskey; Nick admires Jordan’s beauty)Daisy: (To Nick) We heard you were engaged to a girl out west.Tom: That’s right. We heard you were engaged.Nick: It’s libel. I’m too poor.Daisy: (To Tom) But, we heard it.Tom: (To Daisy then Nick) Yeah. We heard it from three people. It must be true.

Nick: (Irritated and voice slightly raised) No! It’s not true at all. (Silence)Daisy: So… Did you find a place in West Egg?Nick: Yes Daisy, I have. (Pointing D.R.) It’s just across the bay. I think you can see it from here. Would you like me to show you?Daisy: Yes. I would love to see it. Why don’t we go on the terrace Nick. You can show me where it is. (Daisy drags Nick away to the terrace D.R. [where Tom and Nick entered])Nick: (Looking across bay) Let’s see… Let’s see… Oh yes… Do you see that over there? (Pointing D.R.) That colossal mansion across the bay?Daisy: (Leaning forward, squinting, and hand horizontal to forehead) Where? I don’t see it.Nick: You can just make it out… (Pointing once more) Do you see it?Daisy: I see it. Is that really where you live?Nick: It’s supposed to be an imitation of some chateau in France. (“Half-Brag;” building as each is said) It’s got a tower on one side, a marble swimming pool, and over forty acres of lawn and garden.Daisy: Nick… Is that where you live?Nick: (Slight chuckle) No, I’m afraid not. I live in a tiny cardboard bungalow next door. You can’t see it from here.Daisy: Oh.Nick: It’s kind of an eyesore, but after a week some guy stopped me on the road and said, (In a deeper ‘funnier’ tone) “How do you get to West Egg Village?” I wasn’t going to be rude and ignore him, so I told him. After that, I wasn’t lonely anymore. I was guide, a pathfinder, and an original settler. He had occasionally conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood. (Tom steps out)Tom: C’mon in Nick. I want to show you something. (Tom pulls Nick back into the house; Jordan looks up)Tom: If you look at thi…Jordan: (Interrupting Tom) So Nick, you live in West Egg? I know somebody there.Nick: I don’t know a sing…Jordan: (Interrupting) You must know Gatsby!Daisy: Gatsby? What Gatsby?Tom: (Pulling Nick away) Come on Nick. I want to show you round before we have dinner. (Exit L.)Daisy: (Looking D.R.) It’s so beautiful out there tonight. In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year. Whenever I watch for it I always miss it.Jordan: You ought to plan something. Something nice for your cousin.

Daisy: (Excited) All right. (Think pacing) What’ll we plan? (Bites finger) What do people plan? (Eyes fasten with an awed expression on her little finger) Ow!!! I hurt it.Tom: (Enters; concerned) What’s the matter honey? (All examine her finger)Daisy: (Assumingly) You did it, Tom. I know you didn’t mean to, but you DID do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a... Tom: (Cross) I hate that word hulking, even in kidding. Daisy: Hul… King. (Silence) Jordan: Hey, put some music on. (Daisy put record on gramaphone)Tom: Civilization’s going to pieces. I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. (To Nick) Have you read ‘The Rise of the Colored Empires?’ It’s by this man named Goddard? Nick: (Surprised; Embarrassed) Why, no.Tom: Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be… We will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff. (Snobbish) It’s been proved. Daisy: Tom’s getting very profound Nick. He reads deep books with long words in them. What was that word we… Tom: (Insisting) Well, these books are all scientific. This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things. Daisy: We’ve got to beat them down.Jordan: You ought to live in California. I was there…Tom: (Interrupting) This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and… (Slight nod to Daisy; Daisy sees and winks at Nick) And we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization. Like science, art, and all that. Do you see? (The Butler enters; whispers something in Tom’s ear; exits) Daisy: (Pulling Nick towards her) Listen, I’ll tell you a family secret. It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the butler’s nose? Nick: That’s why I came over tonight. Daisy: (Gossiping) Well, he wasn’t always a butler; he used to be the silver polisher for some people in New York that had a silver service for two hundred people. He had to polish it from morning till night, until finally it began to affect his nose... Jordan: (Pitching in) Things went from bad to worse. Daisy: Yes. Things went from bad to worse, until finally he had to give up his position. (Girls laugh; Nick laughs along politely; Daisy leans forward; her voice glowing and singing) I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a… Of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he? (She turns to Jordan) Doesn’t he look like an absolute rose?

Nick: (Before Jordan could answer) Daisy, that’s untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. I’m... (Daisy is distracted by a sound in the corridor; She gets up, throws her napkin on the table and excuses herself and exits S.L.; Everyone else looking concerned; Daisy enters; after a moment to Jordan) Is she...? Jordan: Sh! (She listens to what is happening outside the room; Nick waits) Nick: So… This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor? Jordan: Don’t talk Nick. I want to hear what happens. Nick: Is something happening? Jordan: You mean to say you don’t know? I thought everybody knew. Nick: I don’t. I mean I only moved here a few months ago. Jordan: Why, Tom’s got some woman in New York. Nick: Got some woman? (Jordan nods) Jordan: She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you think? (Listening again) I think they must have gone upstairs. Let’s go out on the balcony. (Takes Nick D.R.) So, Nick. Tell me about yourself. Nick: Well… My family comes from the mid-west. My grandfather started a wholesale hardware business out there and the family keeps it going. I graduated from New Haven in 1915 and then a while later I joined up. When I came back I was restless. The mid west seemed like the edge of the universe, so I decided to come east and learn the bond business. Jordan: How is it you know Tom and Daisy? Nick: Daisy is my second cousin once removed... Jordan: Oh yeah. Daisy told me and it must’ve left my mind. Nick: And, well I also knew Tom in college. I haven’t seen them since just after the war. I spent two days with them in Chicago. Jordan: So what do you make of them? Nick: Well. They seem to be doing very well. This place is impressive. Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. Jordan: Tom’s family is so enormously wealthy they can do what they like. Ask him to show you the stables. He’s got twenty polo horses and they are worth millions.Nick: Really? That’s right. He plays polo now. Jordan: Yes but can’t ride more than one horse at a time, Nick. You know I still find it hard to think that someone of our age is wealthy enough to do that. Nick: At college it was football. They say he was one of the best. Jordan: I bet. Come on, Nick. Tell me what you really think of them. (Silence) Nick: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Jordan: What was that? Nick: “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

Jordan: Was that it?Nick: Yeah. But I knew what he meant. As a result I try to reserve all judgments. It means I’m at the mercy of not a few veteran bores. At college they said I’d make a great politician because I was privy to the secrets of wild, unknown men. I promise you I don’t go hunting people down for their secrets. Many a time I have to feign sleep, just to avoid other peoples’ secrets, or run off the moment I feel that some intimate revelation is quivering on the horizon.Jordan: So you’re a very tolerant man. I like that.Nick: Reserving judgments are a matter of infinite hope.Jordan: I agree.Nick: I’m always afraid of missing something.Jordan: The best thing for Daisy is for her to pick upthe child and leave.Nick: She doesn’t seem like she’s about to.Jordan: Tom’s an asshole.Nick: The fact that he has some woman in New York is less surprising to me than the fact that he’s been depressed by a book. Something is making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas. Maybe that sturdy physical ego no longer nourishes him.Jordan: You seemed annoyed when they said they heard you were engaged. Nick: Yes, maybe I was. I knew what they were referring to, but honestly, I wasn’t even vaguely engaged. That kind of gossip was one of the reasons I had come east. You can’t stop going with an old friend on account of rumors, and on the other hand I had no intention of being rumored into marriage. But their interest in me touches me. It makes them seem less remotely rich. (Tom and Daisy enter and sit at the table)Jordan: (Turning round to see Tom and Daisy back at the table) Come on. They’re back. (They step back into the room)Daisy: (With tense gaiety) It couldn’t be helped! (Daisy sits down) Jordan: We just stepped out onto the balcony. Daisy: Did you see the bird? I looked out earlier and there was this bird. (To Tom) Tom, there’s a bird on the lawn that I think must be a nightingale come over on the Cunard or White Star Line. He’s singing away. (To Nick) Was he singing just then? It’s romantic, isn’t it, Tom?Tom: (Miserably) Very romantic. (To Nick) If it’s light enough after dinner, I want to take you down to the stables. (The meal continues; everyone talks; Nick watches; everyone drinks; Nick and Daisy go D.R.; spot light on them) Nick: So how is your little girl? What is her name, I forget? Daisy: We don’t know each other very well, Nick. Even if we are cousins… (Pouting) You didn’t come to my wedding. Nick: You know I wasn’t back from the war.

Daisy: That’s true. (Silence) Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick. And I’m pretty cynical about everything. Nick: I suppose she talks, and… Eats, and everything. Daisy: Oh, yes. (Absently) Listen Nick. Let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear? Nick: Very much.Daisy: It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘Alright,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. (Silence) You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow. Everybody thinks so… Well, the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything. (Laughs with thrilling scorn) Sophisticated… God, I’m sophisticated! (Jordan comes over to them)Jordan: Ten o’clock. Time for this good girl to go to bed. Daisy: Jordan’s going to play in the tournament tomorrow, over at Westchester. Nick: (Realizing) Oh, you’re Jordan Baker. Now I know now why your face was familiar. Jordan: Good night. (To Daisy) Wake me at eight, won’t you. Daisy: If you’ll get up. Jordan: I will. Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon.Daisy: Of course you will. In fact I think I’ll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I’ll sort of… Ummm… Fling you together. You know… Lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing... Jordan: (Leaving) Good night. I haven’t heard a word. (Jordan leaves; Tom walks over; He sees Nick watching her go and smiles) Tom: Yeah, she’s a nice girl, Nick. They oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way. Daisy: (Coldly) Who oughtn’t to? Tom: Her family. Daisy: Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. Besides, Nick’s going to look after her, aren’t you, Nick? She’s going to spend lots of weekends out here this summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her. (Daisy and Tom look at each other for a moment in silence) Nick: Is she from New York? Daisy: From Louisville. Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white... Tom: Did you give Nick a little heart to heart talk on the veranda?

Daisy: (To Nick) Did I? I can’t seem to remember, but I think we talked about the Nordic race. Yes, I’m sure we did. It sort of crept up on us and first thing you know... Tom: Don’t believe everything you hear, Nick.Nick: I’ve heard nothing at all. Look, I had better be getting back. Thanks for inviting me. It’s been lovely. (Nick turns to leave) Tom: I’m going to be in New York over the weekend. You want to join me? There are people I want you to meet. Nick: Thanks Tom. Sure. I’d like that. (Lights slowly down; Scene Change)

Scene 2: