BWW Reviews: Engrossing THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS from Cape Town's Play Club

Play Club is a relatively new initiative in Cape Town, describing itself as a book club for theatre lovers with the aim of building a sense of community in the local arts scene. With this reading of Mike Daisey's THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS, it seems that the team of theatre-makers behind Play Club is well on their way to achieving that goal. Having grown from a group of 13 some months ago, this reading included a group of more than 40 actors, writers, directors, filmmakers, politicians, critics and theatregoers, an eclectic mix that really works for Play Club's interactive forum, which offers so much more than a straightforward table reading of a play.

Obviously the table reading of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS was the heart of the event. Prior to the reading, panel moderator Drew Rienstra contextualised the play and led an icebreaker in which everyone in the room was asked to answer a simple question: "What piece of technology can't you live without?" (Answers included iPhones, laptops, USB ports, cars, glasses and even 'my bed'.) This was a neat way to key everyone into not only the issues directly broached in Daisey's piece, but also into the wider problems of a consumerist culture and how each of us plays a role in its perpetuation.

Daisey's original text, as is his wont, is written as a monologue, through which he explores various aspects of the Steve Jobs phenomenon. These include what he sees as Jobs's duality ('visionary asshole'), the rise and fall and rise of Apple and the inhumane working conditions that bring, in this case, various phone manufacturers' products to the public. This version of the piece is subtitled "Release 2.0", a reaction to criticisms of a radio broadcast of sections of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS after which Daisey was accused of exaggerating and fabricating various details of his story. The new version removes five minutes of material that was considered to be problematic, with Daisey commenting, 'If I expect them to build an ethical iPhone, then I needed to build an ethical monologue.'

Following Rientra's welcome, the reading was delivered by a cast of seven actors, with Daisey's monologue split up between them. Mike (read by Daniel Barnett) and his experiences in China were isolated as a through line, while parts of the script that dealt more with the dissemination of Apple products and the ideology that seems to go hand in hand with them were split six ways amongst various contemporary archetypes. These included Businesswoman (Chi Mende), Computer Nerd (Andrew Roux), Student (Jessica Sutton), Hipster (Bjorn Steinbach), Twenty-Something (Candice van Litsenborgh) and Mama (Faniswa Yiwa).

There is nothing like a table reading when the actors are good. Listening to THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASTY OF STEVE JOBS was exciting: with any sort of artifice stripped away, the whole affair was intimate and messy and completely wonderful. Some proposals worked, others did not - but in the end, this mattered very little in this context. What mattered was engaging with the text, which all of the actors did in various ways, resulting in many thoroughly entertaining moments throughout the afternoon.

Following a brief intermission, everyone reconvened for a panel-led discussion based on the reading. The actors and audience were asked for their reactions to the play, while the panel - consisting of playwright and critic Megan Furniss, Fleur du Cap's Marina Griebenow, filmmaker Matthew Kalil , ACT Cape Town's Candice Michelle Poole and DA Councillor Rose Rau - delved into some of the issues that had been raised for them during the reading. Some of these included to what extent the piece could be considered a play at all, whether or not the use of multiple voices illuminated or shut down meaning in the piece, whether or not Jobs was an easy target and whether the wider issues were too broad to pin on him alone and whether the piece had the power to instigate a change in behaviour in the audience.

My views? Well, in short:

• Yes, I think the piece is a play. THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS may not take a traditional format, which is why some people responded favourably when the idea of labelling the piece differently was articulated. In the panel discussion, Griebenow cited three works by David Hare as comparable examples (VIA DOLOROSA, BERLIN and WALL) and all of these - whether one calls them readings for the stage, storytelling or by another moniker - can broadly be considered to be plays.

• I agreed with those who felt that splitting the monologue up into different voices would not work for a full scale production of the piece, where I feel that as written THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS would play most effectively as a monologue. That said I felt it was an appropriate choice for the reading in this forum. One of the problems related to splitting up the piece was articulated by Yiwa, who said that as an actress one instinctively starts looking for an emotional arc, an impossible task when, as Furniss articulated, the links are not there in the first place. (Later, I wondered whether looking for an emotional arc in the conventional sense was a primary concern at all given that the characters were split along archetypal lines, much like Death, Goods or Five Wits in EVERYMAN.)

• Yes, Jobs is an easy target, but he is only the metaphor for all (technological) companies that function in an unethical manner to make consumer goods. Daisey refers to the 'shifting metaphor' and I doubt that the point of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS is for us to think only about the issues within the Apple framework. The field is wide open, but Jobs is an excellent gateway.

• When we were asked for feedback at the end of the play, I said that I thought it was the kind of piece that made me want to want to change my behaviour, but that my smart phone upgrade is due in ten days.... Was it the kind of play that intends to change behaviour? Well, not overnight; I think that Daisey is more realistic than that. The aim of the piece, I think, is to alert us to - as Daisey puts it - 'the web of relationships between (our) things and how they are made'. I might still go for my upgrade at the end of the month, but I will look more carefully at labels and consider buying local products where I can.

Play Club's reading of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS was an engrossing experience. For just a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, I felt I was able to sit down with a group of mostly strangers, set aside our differences and engage together about theatre in a way that I have not been able to since I left university: as if it really matters and as if it really has an impact on our day-to-day existence. Which, of course, it does. Thanks to Play Club for fostering that link, and may it continue to grow from strength to strength.

THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS was read for one night only Sanders South Africa in The Palms Centre in Cape Town. The next Play Club event takes place on 16 June 2013 and will focus on Ken Ludwig's farce, LEND ME A TENOR. Tickets are available at Quicket.

Photo credit: Instagram/ChaseTheSun

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