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If you read all the way to the end of my recent cover story on divisive monologuist Mike Daisey‘s return to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company — where he “birthed” his much-discussed show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs in 2010—-then you know he has already begun to perform a new monologue reflecting on the experience of being publicly shamed for making up some key parts of TATESJ and then lying about it.
Titled The Orient Express (Or, the Value of Failure), the piece riffs on the inherently subjective nature of storytelling and a lot of other big ideas that if you’re already inclined to cut Daisey no slack will probably do nothing to change your mind. I included three excerpts from a June 22 Boston performance of the in-progress Orient Express in my piece.
Earlier today, Woolly Mammoth announced that Daisey will perform a one-night-only workshop of The Orient Express at the theater on July 29 at 7 p.m. The event is open to the public and tickets are free, but you must contact Woolly’s box office via phone (202-393-3939) , Web; or in person (641 D St. NW) to reserve them in advance.
Here’s the official blurb for The Orient Express: “To escape scandal, Mike Daisey impulsively decides to recreate the Orient Express by traveling from London to Istanbul by rail. From an English village out of time to the glorious minarets of Istanbul, from the ghosts of the Berlin Wall to the broken statues and secret police of Budapest’s recent past, Daisey draws out the hidden heart of failure, and how stories, myths, lies, and legends are the way we tell ourselves who we are. From the end of communism to the triumph of corporatism, Daisey walks the borderlands of fact and fiction, wrestling with what failure can teach him, and us, on the long, strange road East.”
Daisey’s updated version of TATESJ is at Woolly to Aug. 5.