“Let’s face it”, he says, “we are all living in a play that isn’t working.”  – Mike Daisey

Monologist Mike Daisey, considered one of the finest storytellers in America,  has a ready home on Woolly Mammoth’s stage and when he comes to town with pieces such as The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Last Cargo Cult, and How Theater Failed America, tickets sell fast.  New Years Eve 2011 Mike performed When the Clock Strikes for Boston’s First Night before a sold out audience, and has given us permission to share the live recording with you.  

<figure class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_12026" style="width: 216px;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-12026">Mike Daisey performing The Last Cargo Cult at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Jan 2010.</figcaption></figure>

Here’s how he described it:

“This is, as the kids call it, freestyling—the monologue was woven in real time in front of the audience, and it touches on death, rebirth, the horrors of the inevitable disappointment of New Year’s Eve, an insane film director in the Ukraine, Samuel Beckett’s face, the pleasures of television, Nazi stormtroopers, theatre as a metaphor for the nature of life, and a survival guide for the coming jaegermeister zombie apocalypse. It concerns the nature of New England Puritans—their origins, feeding habits, and elaborate mating rituals. It is also a document detailing how one might attempt to have a New Year’s Eve that does not suck.

“The audio isn’t perfect, and the monologue was written on the wind, but take it in the spirit it is intended—a small gift for the year ahead.”

Note –   The set which Mike describes is most likely for Huntington Theatre Company’s production of God of Carnage.

Enjoy!

The post Listen in on Mike Daisey’s New Years Eve monologue appeared first on DC Theatre Scene.