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‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’ opens at the Public Theater

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

A wonderfully verbal madman on a socially conscious mission, Mike Daisey creates and performs semi-autobiographical monologues regarding various aspects of our world today.

Daisey’s “If You See Something Say Something” concerns the Homeland Security racket. “21 Dog Years” recalls his times as an Amazon employee during the dot-com boom. “The Last Cargo Cult” mixes the 2008 global financial crisis with tribal tales from the South Pacific.

The storyteller’s latest piece, which opened on Monday at the Public Theater, is “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” It’s terrific and, of course, it’s topical in the wake of Jobs’ untimely death. (Daisey originated this monologue last year but has updated it.)

The show interweaves three related themes: Daisey’s personal fascination with the latest technology; the life, times and thought processes of Jobs and his dealings with Apple; and a journey to the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where much of the world’s electronic devices are manufactured – a post-Orwell world where workers are exploited in horrendous conditions.

Daisey went to Shenzhen to research the story. His dystopian evocation of this nightmare city created with American corporate know-how is a shaming indictment of contemporary greed.

His smart, insightful accounts of Jobs’ life and corporate times are often very funny. So, too, are Daisey’s fan-boy confessions about his own obsessions with technology. Even technophobes who can scarcely work a cell phone will laugh along with Daisey’s frustrations and rhapsodies.

Seemingly gonzo in style, the piece is cunningly structured and composed in soaring flights of rapid-fire language. Spontaneity is essential to Daisey’s story-telling but it’s obvious that this monologue has been carefully organized and edited for maximum effectiveness.

As with most of his earlier projects, Daisey remains seated throughout the performance in front of a table. But Daisey’s arms, torso and expressive bad-boy face are never in repose as he rants, rages and writhes his purposeful way through the compelling story, which is described as a work of non-fiction.

Daisey’s vocal performance is similarly athletic in its Olympics-level prowess at throwing words and ideas around. Performing with total confidence, he scarcely glances at perhaps a dozen yellow pages of notes during this riveting two-hour talk-athon. Daisey’s frequent collaborator, director Jean-Michele Gregory, again unerringly guides the storyteller’s ever-modulating verbal and emotional rhythms.