I’m in Washington, D.C. for the CapitalFringe, where the main draw is the monologist Mike Daisey’s 18-show “A People’s History,” derived from bits of Howard Zinn’s book, plus Daisey’s personal analysis.
I am here performing at the festival, too, July 20-28th. More about my show in a bit.
Right now, Daisey is the king of the monologue/solo performance form, and to see Daisey is to experience quite a tour-de-force combination of storytelling and truth-telling.
Daisey also exposes the White-ish nature of the American theater crowd. For the show I was attending, it was perhaps 80 percent White, and older, ages 50-plus. So much for diversity.
But because of that, when Daisey chides the audience for its White orientation, and the role they’ve all played in America’s racist/sexist past, or when he mocks his own white privilege, it’s not as discomforting nor as shocking as it should be.
It’s actually a bit comforting, like liberals entertaining each other with the latest “Trump as Cheeto” jokes. At the show I saw, it was like people coming in for their medicine as they count down to 2020.
Daisey’s a great performer, but it’s a different show from mine – a person of color telling a story about racism and marginalization in America from the highest levels of society.
