Award-winning theatre company Back Alley Productions invites you to the Mars Theatre for our upcoming production of "The Great Gatsby," based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's seminal American novel.
Performances are August 6 through 15, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. The theatre is located at 117 N. Chattanooga Street, Lafayette, GA.
Tickets can be purchased online at BAPshows.com, or at the box office 30 minutes before showtime. Seating at the Mars Theatre is first come, first served. Seating is currently reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic so online reservations are encouraged. Masks are required for entry into the Mars Theatre.
The Great Gatsby begins at the onset of the prosperous and exciting Roaring Twenties. Nick Carraway retells his move to New York City, hungry for a new life of adventure and fortune. It's there that he reconnects with his kind cousin Daisy and her strong-willed husband Tom Buchanan. It's not long before Nick also begins to learn more about his mysterious and generous neighbor, a wealthy man named Gatsby who seems to have it all.
As Nick and Gatsby formed an unlikely friendship, he learns that Gatsby is a long-lost love of Daisy, who is still married to Tom... and that Gatsby has built up his enormous fortune as part of a plan to win Daisy back, at all costs. Considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's best work, "The Great Gatsby" examines America at the peak of the Jazz Age, exploring what the American Dream truly represents and its ultimate impracticality.
“The Great Gatsby captures so much of the American Spirit, both the inspiring and the bleak,” Director Madison Smith said. “There was such a hunger in the new advanced world of the 1920s to taste all the promises of life: money, love, success and prosperity. After years of death and destruction, the general feeling of that time was that American prosperity had finally been set free. Anyone could become anything if they just worked hard enough. But, from Fitzgerald’s point of view, all these promises were at best evasive, and at worst a dangerous delusion.”
Smith says the Great Gatsby has stood the test of time because it appeals to the universal American experience that is stronger today, nearly 100 years later.
“Even today we’re told: if you just work a little harder, reach out your arms just a little further, you can rise out of your circumstances and thrive,” she notes. “That’s the national ethos that’s driven this country, for better or worse, since the beginning, and the crux of The Great Gatsby.”
The production is complete with hallmarks of the 1920s, from flappers to the Charleston, drinks and parties, the experience will be transformative.
“The Jazz Age is romantic and tantalizing,” Smith notes. “So much possibility, so many people to meet, so much potential. Gatsby represents that idea: someone from less than nothing, overcoming all obstacles to get to where and who he wants. But Fitzgerald was ultimately cynical about these beliefs. He spotlights the American reality of classism, limitations of status and circumstance, and the duality of prosperity and poverty living within the same America.”
The production contains some adult language, violence and other thematic elements that are considered unsuitable for children. For more information visit BAPshows.com or call (706) 621-2870.
COVID-19 DISCLAIMER:
During performances, all audience members will be required to wear facemasks appropriately (covering both the nose and mouth) during their time inside the Mars Theatre, regardless of vaccine status. Back Alley Productions will remain committed to creating the safest possible environment for our cast, crew and patrons.