One ordinary day at the office, an employee picks up a copy of The Great Gatsby, and begins to read aloud. “In my younger and more vulnerable years,” goes the opening line of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The employee doesn’t stop. For six and a half hours, the tale of Gatsby flows word for word, coming to life within the office as the staff gradually embodies the characters, creating the sensation that everything is taking place in the reader’s imagination. Conceived by the Elevator Repair Service theater group, a 2010 production of Gatz was described in The New York Times as “a morning-fresh variation on an ancient theatrical formula. . . . Boy meets book. Boy gets book. Boy becomes lost in book.” The performance features three intermissions, including a 90-minute dinner break. —Jeanne Malle