Photo Flash: THE LAST CARGO CULT Opening Night, 12/7

The Public Theater presented the opening of the New York premiere of THE LAST CARGO CULT, created and performed by Mike Daisey and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory in the Public's Newman Theater last night, December 7. THE LAST CARGO CULT began previews on Thursday, December 3 and will continue through Sunday, December 13. Single tickets are currently on sale.

In THE LAST CARGO CULT, groundbreaking monologist Mike Daisey (If You See Something Say Something) returns to The Public with the story of his journey to a remote South Pacific island whose people worship America and its cargo.  This narrative is woven against a searing examination of the international financial crisis that gripped the globe at the same moment.  Confronting the financial system that dominates our world, Daisey wrestles with the largest questions of what the collapse means, and what it can tell us about our deepest values.  Part adventure story and part memoir, he explores each culture to unearth a human truth between the seemingly primitive and achingly modern.

"Mike Daisey is funny, fearless and brilliant.  He's one of those rare performers who is as fascinated by the world around him as he is by the world inside him, and he creates evenings that are delightful and genuinely thought-provoking," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.  "He's rapidly becoming one of the seminal theater artists of his generation, and we are delighted he has a home at The Public Theater."

THE LAST CARGO CULT will feature set design by Peter Ksander (Idiot Savant) and lighting design by Russell H. Champa (In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play).

Mike Daisey (Creator and Performer) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His monologues include last season's critically acclaimed If You See Something Say Something, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Over the last decade he has brought his work to venues including The Public Theater, the Cherry Lane Theater, the Barrow Street Theatre, Yale Repertory Theater, the Spoleto Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Center Theater Group, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Noorderzon Festival, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Perseverance Theatre, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, Intiman Theatre, the Under the Radar Festival, Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts, Performance Space 122, and many more. He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to Studio 360, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, WNYC and the BBC. His first film, Layover, is being distributed by Lars von Trier's company Zentropa, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something will be released next year. His first book, 21 Dog Years: A Cubedweller's Tale, was published by the Free Press and his second book, a collected anthology of his monologues, will be published by TCG in the fall of 2010. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and has been the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, three Seattle Times Footlight Awards, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in New York City with his director and collaborator, Jean-Michele Gregory.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, and productions of classics at its downtown and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 52 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; and, most recently, the current Tony Award-winning revival of Hair. www.publictheater.org.

Photo credit: Lucas Stoffel

Jean-Michele Gregory and Mike Daisey

Andrew D. Hamingson, Oskar Eustis, Jean-Michele Gregory, and Mike Daisey

Oskar Eustis, Jean-Michele Gregory and Mike Daisey

Oskar Eustis and Laurie Eustis

Mike Daisey and Gail Papp