Watching 'Steve Jobs' While Clutching My iPhone

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON SIRI Mike Daisey in a return engagement of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" at the Public Theater.

In Which a Crazy Lady Won't Stop Laughing . . . and the Public's New Ladies' Room Makes a Dazzling Debut . . .



I MISSED "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" when it first arrived at the Public Theater last fall. But Mike Daisey, whose solo show this is, has returned for another round. And it's still such a hot ticket that many theater journalists are being given only single tickets, not the usual pair.

At some point I read the New York Times review of the show ("Moral Issues Behind iPhone and Its Makers"), but I'd gotten it into my head that Mr. Daisey played Jobs, the founder of Apple, regarded since his death in October as a fascinating devil god.

No.

Mr. Daisey spends the evening seated at a desk, Spalding Gray-style, talking about Jobs and Apple, the company he and Steve Wozniak created. And his real purpose appears to be to wake up those of us who live by the i (Phone, Pod, Pad, etc.). Apple's manufacturing setup and work conditions in Shenzhen, China, he tells us, are just as hideous as any we've ever heard of. He has tales of 13-year-old girls with permanently deformed hands, injuries that could have been prevented just by varying work assignments.

I did feel hideously guilty holding my iPhone in my left hand throughout the performance. (I've stopped putting the thing away during one-acts, because I'm constantly losing it, dropping it or just forgetting where I've stashed it.)

When "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" wasn't horrifying, it was consistently quite funny. But I almost began to wish it weren't because of the woman behind me, who laughed (a horrible laugh, sort of like Fran Drescher's, but without the accent) at everything. This woman, I swear, laughed at commas.

The biggest thrill of the evening came later. The Public, as you may know, is in the middle of a major renovation. And now at least one important project has been completed. Theatergoing ladies, I am happy to announce that the Public's new ground-floor women's restroom is a beauty, with stalls as far as the eye can see. (No report yet on the new men's room.)

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COMING SOON

Last week's theater adventures, including "Carrie" at the Lucille Lortel Theater, "Tribes" at the Barrow Street and "Painting Churches" at the Clurman on Theater Row.
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"The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," created and performed by Mike Daisey, directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 967-7555 and publictheater.org. Runs through March 18, 2012.