Thursday, January 24, 2008

Capitol Hill Arts Center - Theater - MONOPOLY! (Seattle Weekly):

Mike Daisey has been compared to Spalding Gray, David Sedaris and other solo monologuists. But he’s more dynamic and theatrical. Yes, he’s a great storyteller, but he’s also an amazing physical comedian—all the more amazing because he performs seated behind a desk. From that seemingly static position he creates, in MONOPOLY!, a hilarious repertory of hand chops, head shakes, arm sweeps and body jiggles that are every bit as important as the words on the page. Not to mention the guy’s whisper-to-a-roar vocal control and gift for subtle mimicry. His script, which knits together ruminations on big, bad capitalism across recent history (Thomas Edison trying to squash a competitor; Bill Gates and Microsoft doing their thing; Wal-Mart sucking up all the remaining life in Daisey’s Maine hometown; Parker Brothers marketing a stolen game) with incidents from the performer’s personal history.