Review: OnStage in Bedford's THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT questions the truth.

 The Lifespan of a Fact

By Jeremy Kareken, David Murrel and Jordan Farrell

Directed by Ben Phillips


Reviewed by David Ellivloc

I am certain that this will come as no shock to anyone who knows me even slightly but, for the benefit of the rest of you, I hereby disclose that I have rightly and often been vociferously accused of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story.  Now, don’t misjudge me, but I think that this behavior on my part is a good thing and is indeed one for which I strive.  However, and this may surprise you, I am not in my opinion a liar and consider myself scrupulously truthful, despite my peculiar predilection.  I believe that, by embellishing or perhaps one might posit even improving the truth, I am serving a larger purpose in getting the true feeling or nature of some event (i.e., THE TRUTH) across to my audience.  So you can imagine my surprise and immediate interest when the lights came up at ONSTAGE in Bedford last Friday and I quickly discovered that the comedy The Lifespan of a Fact was a play about the right or wrong of such an approach to storytelling.

At lights up, in a cleverly sparse set wrapped in evocative newsprint, I saw an obviously harried and hurried woman of intelligence in magazine editor Emily Penrose, as played by Susan Dergoul.  Her immediate task is to get a straight-outta-Harvard-grad, named Jim Fingal (engagingly played by Hayden Moore,) up to speed and out of her hair.  Moore’s Fingal is eager to please. In fact, he is dangerously anxious to impress, something for which Dergoul’s Penrose has no time and little interest.  The tension in these first scenes is just right as both Dergoul’s and Moore’s characters struggle to maintain proper new employee/boss decorum while angling to get what they each need.  Dergoul’s Penrose needs a swift fact-checking by Fingal of a possibly earth-shaking essay by a brilliant writer, who she knows from experience sometimes has a casual relationship with the facts.  While Moore’s Fingal, who is quite obviously over his head with this assignment, wheedlingly seeks more guidance and clarity while maintaining he’s got this.

The third side of this triangle, (which is, happily, an equilateral one, since all three actors are of excellent and equal strength,) is Bradford Rielly, who plays writer John D’Agata with a believable and fun irascibility.  Moore’s Fingal is thrust into the fray by Dergoul’s Penrose, and the initial contact between Fingal and D’Agata is very funny as Rielly’s D’Agata demands, “Who are you???!!!???”.  The action and the mayhem really ratchet up when Dergoul’s Penrose learns the geographic lengths to which Fingal has gone to get the Dragnet Joe Friday “just the facts” 411 from D’Agata about the subject of the essay, a teen suicide in Las Vegas from the top of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino.  The back and forth banter between all three actors is fast, funny and furious.  There’s even some very nice bits of physical comedy.

The Lifespan of a Fact is a play about ideas of truth and art and whether they should or could be allowed to intersect, overlap or diverge, without sacrificing one for the other.  However, it’s also full of action as the play has three well-written protagonists, again all extremely well-played in this production, along with a plot of many turns and twists as allegiances change and other concerns, such a magazine “circulation literally dying”, are also raised and impinge on the purer arguments about truth’s relationship to art.  Director Ben Phillips has masterfully helmed this fun and interesting evening of theatre that has a 90 minutes and out format (i.e., no intermission).  Definitely, this is a play that warrants some discussion afterwards, and allows for it with the compressed ninety-minute run time, so bring some friends and have some fun during the play AND afterwards. Get your tickets at onstageinbedford.com

Accessible seating: Available

Hearing Devices Available: Not Available

Sensory Friendly Showing: No

Audience Rating: PG

Production Sound Level: Comfortable Volume

Noises and Visuals to Know About: Yes, a character chokes another for about 5 seconds.

 

See you at the theater!

David Ellivloc

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