Dramatist Mike Daisey said his much-anticipated Steve Jobs monologue will proceed with its theatrical debut this week despite news of the Apple CEO’s medical leave. If the early reviews are anything to go by, the show should make a splash.
Daisey, who has been described as “one of the elite performers in American theatre,” said in a blog post and in an email to his fans today that that his show “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” will open as scheduled this Thursday at the Berkeley Repertory theatre despite Jobs’ health problems:
There’s a palpable sense of loss and change as the tech industry struggles to know what this will mean for its future. We stand at a crossroads, and it is my sincere belief that this story, capturing both his genius and his stubbornness, his brilliance and his ridiculousness, can help turn our attention to how the tech industry can grow up and begin to take responsibility for its decisions.
The official opening follows experimental previews off Broadway in New York and in far-flung venues like Bangalore, India and Cape Cod. The early notices have been good. “The audience was in splits, drawn in and riveted,” wrote one audience member published in The Hindu. “Most of us in the audience will never look at our gadgets and our ways of life as we did before he spoke.” A reviewer who caught a preview in Massachusetts called it “a very funny and entertaining evening with a serious message“. Jobs may be less appreciative: Daisey is reportedly giving out the CEO’s email address and asking audience members to contact him about the all too lamentable working conditions at factories making his products in China. Which is perfectly fine, as long as they can handle Jobs’ agile replies.
[Pic: Daisey by Aaron Webb/Flickr]
Republished from Gawker