Monologist Mike Daisey pursues the utopian impulse to the expanses of the desert, to the “happiest place on Earth,” and to a private/public park that birthed a movement in American Utopias. The University of Iowa’s Hancher will present Daisey at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, February 21-23 in Mabie Theatre in the UI Theatre Building.
Daisey has been called “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times. He crafts stories that rapidly engage the audience with principled—if salty—language and vivid accounts of his subjects.
In American Utopias, Daisey takes the audience to the drug-fueled anarchic excesses of Burning Man, to the nostalgic theme park perfection of Disney World, and to the unlikely birthplace of the Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park. The monologue explores how we create public spaces where we come together to enact dreams of a better world. In keeping with his body of work, he combines autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance with comedy and sharp-eyed observation.
Daisey has been performing monologues since the mid-1990s—the first was called Wasting Your Breath—and has explored a wide array of topics. In 2012, his monologue The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs garnered Daisey national attention. The piece examined the exploitation of Chinese workers by Apple’s primary manufacturer, Foxconn, whose factories are located in Shenzhen, China. Excerpts from his performance were presented on This American Life in January 2012. The episode was downloaded a total of 888,000 times and had 206,000 live streams, a record for This American Life. Despite this success and the importance of the issue under consideration, the episode was formally retracted following reports that Daisey had invented portions of the work that had been presented as fact.
While the controversy contributed to an ongoing conversation about the nature of nonfiction and theatre, it did little to slow Daisey’s creative impulses. The Chicago run of American Utopias was a hit, with the Chicago Sun Times calling the performance, “enthralling and supremely theatrical...[with] incomparable comic verve.” Meanwhile, a one-time performance of a new monologue centered on Ayn Rand sold out in 16 minutes at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
Mike Daisey’s Hancher performance is supported by the Hancher partners and gifts to Hancher Circle through the UI Foundation.
How to get tickets
Tickets for Daisey are $30 for nonstudents; $10 for college students and youth; and $27 for senior citizens. The Hancher Box Office, located on the first floor of the south end of the Old Capitol Mall near the parking ramp, is open for phone (319-335-1160 or 800-HANCHER) or walk-up business from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. Tickets may be ordered online at www.hancher.uiowa.edu. Any remaining tickets will be available for sale one hour before show time at the UI Theatre Building’s Box Office.