Mike Daisey in “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” (Photo by Stan Barouh via Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company)
Last week, after it was revealed that Mike Daisey had fabricated parts of his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and that This American Life had retracted an episode based on the show, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company said it was sticking by its plan to bring Daisey and the now-somewhat-discredited show back to its stage this summer.
Woolly Mammoth’s initial stance didn’t seem to properly weigh the implications of Daisey’s show being discredited by a trusted radio program. But today, having listened to last weekend’s edition of This American Life devoted to the flap and perhaps considering some of the reactions do Daisey’s appearance Monday evening at Georgetown University, Woolly clarified its position.
Daisey is still coming back this summer to perform The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, but unlike before, audiences will no longer be told it is a work of non-fiction, as they were by the programs for the original staging. In a lengthy statement today on its blog, the theater company also apologized for ever presenting Daisey’s work as the unfiltered truth in the first place:
Having heard the episode now, we can all admit to feeling discomfort, anger, pity, disappointment, and a whole host of complex emotions. We acknowledge, as Mike does, that nothing excuses his deception of Ira Glass and This American Life. There were so many moments when Mike could have clarified the difference between things he actually witnessed in China, things he only heard in China, and the storytelling inventions he deployed to illustrate each. He could have accurately labeled his work from the outset—to his producing partners in the theatre and on the radio—as something other than a work of non-fiction. He didn’t, and many who saw the piece in the theatre or heard it on the radio felt betrayed.
But from a thematic perspective, Woolly is still standing by Daisey. And that’s OK to do. His methods were shoddy and his details inaccurate, but Daisey’s broader points about Apple’s dependence on brutal labor conditions and its customers’ willingness to turn a blind eye out of fealty to shiny, coveted gadgets are not in dispute.
Still, Woolly’s former communications director, Alli Houseworth, wrote earlier this week that theaters—especially the ones that partnered with Daisey on bringing The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs to life—should boycott the monologuist.
But Daisey is still on to return to Woolly. In the mean time, Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and Managing Director Jeff Herrmann will attempt to tackle the fiasco over Daisey in a public conversation next Tuesday at the theater (641 D Street NW) at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and can be obtained by calling (202) 393-3939.
