Monopoly!

Dubbed “the master storyteller” by The New York Times, Mike Daisey brought down the house at the 2005 Festival with his monologue The Ugly American. This year, he explores the warped genius of inventor Nikola Tesla and his war with Thomas Edison over the standards for electricity — a battle that would define America’s future. This thread loops around Microsoft’s historic antitrust lawsuit, the checkered history of the board game Monopoly, and the story of Daisey’s own hometown and its one remaining retailer: Wal-Mart. As subversive as it is hilarious, Monopoly! brings to life the questions we confront under corporate rule, and explores the choices and struggles individuals face living in a system that recognizes only profit and loss.