THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theatre

(Seen October 2011)

Amidst all the paeans for the late Steve Jobs, Michael Daisey delves into the sordid business and labor practices of Apple Computers, in its triumphal rise as the leader of the technology apparatus industry.

As a piece of political/social theatre it is an informative and revelatory presentation, based on Daisey's probing investigations into labor conditions at the Chinese factory which creates most of Apple's ground-breaking devices.  It is story-telling in the old-fashioned way, full of personal anecdotes.

Daisey paints vivid and lurid pictures of the oppressed workers, contrasting his casual, sweaty, and gritty, but intense, style.  He works from sheets of notes in his two-hour diatribe.  It is a call for action, but theatre qaudiences, no matter how sympathetic to the cause, are unlikely to give up their iphones and ipads.