What you are touching right now has a deep, dark secret. While your fingers slide across its smooth, sleek exterior, inside, it holds an ugly truth. I hate to break it to you, but the words you are reading right now are staring at you from a screen that glows with guilt. And Mike Daisey will tell you why.

In his monologue, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” comedian Mike Daisey opens his viewers’ eyes to the behind-the-scenes of Apple’s production methods. Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, who also happens to be Daisey’s wife, the show first premiered in July at New York’s Public Theater and has been extended to play through December 4th. With his razor-sharp wit, Daisey illuminates how Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, created the products that shape our lives and make us fall in love with technology. Daisey humorously recounts his love affair with Apple’s products, beginning when his wealthy uncle gave his family an early model Apple computer as a gift. The computer was subsequently given its own room.

I find this particularly funny and relevant as I can recall the day my father brought home the large, cardboard box containing our first computer, the original iMac. I remember staring at its startup screen (which flashed for a good 10 minutes) with awe and excitement. The blue monitor was placed on a desk in the room we now call “The Computer Room.”

But these products come with a price. In his one-man-show, Daisey forces his audience to acknowledge the moral choices they make each time they purchase an iPhone or iPad. You look at your Mac with awe. The power it possesses is incredible. But did you know that these gadgets are the products of considerable human suffering? The show reaches its engrossing peak as Daisey delves into an account of his dangerous trip to China. Here is from where the agony mentioned in the title stems.

According to Daisey, about half of all consumer electronics sold in the world today are produced at a single factory in Shenzhen, China. He describes the town of Shenzhen as looking like “ ‘Blade Runner’ threw up on itself.” Daisey attempted to visit the Foxconn campus, a tightly controlled factory secured by armed guards. Denied entry, he simply rented a car and waited outside to interview the factory’s workers as they were leaving their long day at the factory. He had to wait a very long time.

While the official Chinese workday is 8 hours, at Foxconn, at least 12-hour day is the norm. One worker died after a 34-hour shift. Foxconn made international headlines several years ago when a series of suicides at the plant was revealed. The workers Daisey meets are as young as 13. Due to the labor’s repetitive nature, their hands are often left deformed, rendering them unemployable.

While Daisey does not outwardly blame Mr. Jobs, he does explain how disgracefully negligent Apple has been in taking responsibility for the treatment of workers at the overseas plants that manufacture their products. And Apple is not alone. Other American corporations are at fault, as well.

As New York Time’s journalist Charles Isherwood remarks, “Anyone who sees Mr. Daisey’s show — and anyone with a cellphone and a moral center should — will find it hard to forget the repercussions that our casual purchases can have in the lives of men and women (and children) half a world away.”

After seeing this show, it might be fairly hard to find the “Skip this thought” button in your head. Daisey’s performance is a representation of how art can be used as a vehicle for social awareness.

Charles Isherwood’s article can be found here.

To Visit “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” page, and to purchase tickets, click here.