Controversial monologist Mike Daisey was doing a performance of his celebrated show “Invincible Summer” last Thursday night at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, when a mob of radical, mute activists disrupted his show by walking out of the theater all at once, one of them pouring water on his original, hand written notes.
Here’s Mike’s write-up on it that he sent out to his mailing list, which includes video of the surreal incident. I must say, Mike recovered from it very well, working it all back into his show. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the action.
I’m still dealing with all the ramifications, but here’s what it felt like from my end: I am performing the show to a packed house, when suddenly the lights start coming up in the house as a flood of people start walking down the aisles–they looked like a flock of birds who’d been startled, the way they all moved so quickly, and at the same moment…it was shocking, to see them surging down the aisles. The show halted as they fled, and at this moment a member of their group strode up to the table, stood looking down on me and poured water all over the outline, drenching everything in a kind of anti-baptism.
For more on Mike Daisey, check out his Wikipedia profile. He’s probably most well known for his performance and later book: “21 Dog Years : Doing Time @ Amazon.com”, recounting his days working at Amazon.com in the late 90’s.
UPDATE: Both John Hodgman and Adam Gordon are reporting that this was not a group of Christians (as I had originally posted based on multiple sources, including Mike Daisey himself), but instead faculty and students from Norco High School located in Norco, CA.
