The Last Cargo Cult
Mike Daisey
4 of 5 stars
The audience members who went to see Mike Daisey’s “The Last Cargo Cult” spent the duration of the show richer than they were before, if only for two hours.
As part of Wednesday night’s act, they received bills ranging from $1 to $100 upon entering Kenan Theatre.
The crowd resisted the urge to pocket the money, which would ultimately play a role in the end of the performance.
“The Last Cargo Cult” was the first production of the season for PRC2, a less conventional subgroup of PlayMakers Repertory Company. The performance runs through Sunday.
Hilarious and thought-provoking, Daisey addressed the role of money in our society. He also touched on the global financial crisis by relating it to the island community of Tanna in the South Pacific.
The people of Tanna have developed their own religion based on America’s wealth.
Daisey’s monologue was as absorbing as being told a bedtime story by a favorite relative.
The show’s initial image was surprising — a stage decorated only by a desk, a chair and a glass of water.
Daisey took the audience on a journey that had them either rolling with laughter or, at other times, sitting in stony silence.
He kept the audience’s attention by using a wide variety of cartoonish facial expressions and wild gestures, filling the stage with his personality.
Although some of his comments were somber, he used comical analogies more often to convey his points.
His stories ranged from chasing a pig that stole his PowerBar to getting in a car wreck in the Hamptons to his experience with the village chief’s son on the edge of a volcano.
Daisey also recalled a moment when his plane went out of control on an island runway.
“When you’re about to die, you want to scream, ‘Why didn’t I steal more money?’ But then if you live … it’s awkward,” Daisey said.
To prove a more serious point, Daisey revealed that the money given out at the beginning of the performance was the amount he was paid for the performance.
While he realized he needed the money, he also knew that money only has the value you assign it.
In the end, Daisey challenged the audience’s perception of money and the role it plays in our society and the world.
He offered audience members a chance to keep the bills, but doing so would have gone against the moral of the show.
“The religion of the First World is finance,” Daisey said. “In our country it is legal to burn a flag, but it is illegal to burn money.”
Attend the show
Time: 8 p.m. today through Sunday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Location: Kenan Theatre, Center for Dramatic Art
Info: www.playmakersrep.org
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
