MOSES LAKE — The classic – and tragic – tale of a man reaching for something he can never have will come to the Moses Lake High School stage Thursday through Saturday. The curtain rises on “The Great Gatsby” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a matinée scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday.

It’s the spring production of the MLHS drama club. The high school is located at 803 East Sharon Ave.

The play is based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, considered by many modern critics to be one of the best American novels ever written. It’s been filmed numerous times, most recently in 2013, and is commonly assigned in high schools, including MLHS, and colleges.

“I told them (potential cast members) it’s not a happy story,” said director and drama club advisor Sabrina Haesche.

The title character is the mysterious Jay Gatsby (Deacon Garza in the MLHS production), whose lavish lifestyle is a source of endless fascination to everybody who knows of him – because nobody really knows him. That includes his next-door neighbor Nick Carraway (Jacob Law), who tells the story, both in the book and the play.

Nick’s come to New York to make his fortune, and reconnects with his cousin Daisy (Izzy Sica) and her husband Tom (Erik Roemer). Tom has money but that’s all he’s got – among many other character faults, he’s a philanderer and he hits women.

The mystery behind Jay Gatsby sets in motion a chain of events that do not, as Haesche said, end well.

“We (the cast) talked a lot about it,” Haesche said, about the characters and why they do what they do. The cast liked the play’s dark and difficult story, she said, and were attracted by the 1920s setting.

It was a difficult production, she said, mainly because it takes place at so many different locations around New York and Long Island. “How do we represent place?” The cast had the help of parent volunteers, who helped round up the furniture used as scenery and made the props, including the car that figures prominently in the story.

The poster advertising the production is an original work, Haesche said, designed by MLHS student Cameron Hein.

Tickets are available at the MLHS office, open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and are $10 general admission, $8 for the matinée and $8 for students with an ASB card.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].