Review - If You See Something Say Something: A Patriot's Act

Although Mike Daisey's exploration of national defense, past and present, If You See Something Say Something, arrives at Joe's Pub just in time to serve as a companion piece to the Metropolitan Opera's production of Dr. Atomic, there is nothing minimalist about this monologist. He may spend the entire 100 minute presentation sitting behind a desk with nothing but a glass of water and his notes but, as directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, Daisey himself is a fully orchestrated production. A large man who embellishes his frank observations ("The founding fathers could have been considered by the British to be terrorists.") and grim warnings ("If you raise an army and leave it standing, it will find something to do.") with artfully placed profanity, large, sweeping gestures and a face of fully animated Silly Putty, his voice is that of a genial, but angered everyman, bouncing with varied tempos, tones, full out comic crescendos and meaningful sotto voces. If Lenny Bruce was embodied by Zero Mostel and played by Louis Armstrong, the result would closely resemble Mike Daisey.

The piece begins with his drive to Los Alamos, New Mexico, the site of the first test detonation of an atomic bomb, which is only open to the public one day a year. (The first Saturday in October, in case you were planning a family outing.) There he considers the civic pride behind a public statue of a mushroom cloud and the value of life expressed by a visitors' center educational recording that tells how using the bomb saved the lives of a projected one million American soldiers without ever mentioning the 200,000 actual civilian lives it took. He tries to imagine what was inside the minds of the men who worked on that top-secret project. Did they think that possessing an atomic bomb could end the war without first giving the world a practical demonstration of what it can do?

But while that trip provides the framework, Daisey takes many detours. His comparison of the color-coded terror alert system with its corresponding numbers from the DEFCON alert system and his description of how post 9-11 American airport security provides the feeling of safety instead of actual safety are both disturbing and hilarious. So is his proof of how nobody who voted for the Patriot Act was given enough time to read it first. (Of the act's co-author, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, he reasons, "You know that this guy has at least read half of it.")

And while Daisey's performance is primarily comic, there is an intriguing poignancy in his discussion of Samuel Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb. Cohen felt his creation, which could instantly kill a city full of people while leaving buildings unharmed, was a moral weapon because he believed it could be developed to work with the kind of pinpoint accuracy that would spare civilians from harm.

As with any politically charged theatre piece, there are those who will certainly disagree with Daisey's arguments. While I'm not here to confirm or dispute his claims, I will vouch for the effectiveness of his plea for Americans to take advantage of the unfiltered information that is out there and to always preserve a healthy skepticism toward our elected officials. ("Dealing with the Federal Government is like watching slugs dancing. It only gets interesting when you pour a little salt on them.") I'll also vouch for the comically perverse atmosphere to the proceedings as patrons listen to the artist's passionate warnings about the loss of basic freedoms while enjoying selections from Joe's Pub's extensive wine line and tantalizing prix fix menu. The salmon is very good.