“The Lifespan of a Fact” reviewed by Julia W. Rath

*** “The Lifespan of a Fact”, directed by Elizabeth Mazur Levin, has to do with how writers bring text to life through journalistic artistry. We come to understand how people see and use facts very differently to form a picture of the world that we live in. This is important because the way we examine facts and their relationship to truth ultimately determines how and whether we can agree on the nature of reality. Just as importantly, this play examines the relationship between fact-finding and good storytelling—and the circumstances where one might enhance or detract from the other.

Three characters with very different approaches to nonfiction writing give this play its crowning point and its sense of humor. Experienced editor Emily Penrose (Marianne Embree) wants a series of articles that she can publish in her magazine. These should draw an audience in, but they also have to be factually accurate. John D’Agata (Tim Walsh) is a compelling essayist who often takes poetic license when writing about his subject matter. Emily knows that John will likely embellish a story to make it sound better in terms of its meaning and its prose. So she hires Jim Fingal (James Wheeler), who has previously worked as a journalist on the Harvard “Crimson”, to fact-check John’s most recent essay. Briefly, John has written about the suicide of a man named Levi Presley, who takes an elevator 1149 feet up the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas and jumps off a ledge.

The overlap of the lives of these three very different people is what makes the show quite intriguing. Each one approaches the facts in their own way when it comes to uncovering the truth behind John’s story. I liked the portion where Jim wants to do his job so well that he actually goes to Las Vegas to interview John about why he wrote what he did. It is humorous to see how John plays with the truth for the sake of making his article sound juicier than it might otherwise have been. At the same time, it is funny to see how persistent Jim can be when nitpicking about teeny-tiny facts. We see how he develops a huge spreadsheet where he lists every single fact in every single sentence that apparently needs checking or attribution, together with a set of notes far larger than John’s initial text. Emily, in contrast, looks at writing from the angle of reasonableness in between these two extremes. She is the one who keeps her readers in mind at all times, yet is painfully aware of what the magazine’s legal department might say or do if the “facts” being published happen to be wrong.

Written by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, “The Lifespan of a Fact” is based on the book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. The casting is perfect, and the acting is great. But while the idea behind the script is a very good one, the overwhelming number of facts recited throughout (that we don’t need to hear) starts eroding our attention away from our broader understanding of what the play is about. When the tale begins to dwell too heavily on the nonessential (rather than on the underlying happenstance and the angst of the characters), you start to lose the audience. That being said, it is the end that pulls things together and is excellent.

The show begs an interesting question of judgment: Which facts are essential to telling a story and which are not? Doesn’t that hinge on what the story is supposed to be about in the first place? To what extent does it have to be true-to-life? Where is the boundary line between fact, opinion, and embellishment? Then, if we want tell a story that’s good, what exactly does this mean? What makes it interesting or engaging? Does it have to make a point?

All told, the play has to do with the sacred trust of putting pen to paper as honestly and fairly as possible. We learn by means of Jim’s example what can happen when you overanalyze a subject: that you might lose your appreciation of its larger or deeper meaning (as in not seeing the forest for the trees). Then too, by means of John’s example, we can imagine what might happen when inaccuracies pile up and stories are on the edge of losing their authenticity. As John says, good storytelling makes some change in the person who reads it. But as Jim puts it, you don’t want to open yourself up to conspiracy theories that might “sound good.” Apparently, there has to be some balance between telling a story that’s relevant and timely and that people want to hear and telling a story as accurately as possible. Basically, it’s Emily the editor who uses her common sense to teach both men the virtue of meeting her magazine’s deadline and the value of getting John’s essay “out there” in print. It all boils down to sharing a slice of knowledge with the subscribers, who intend to learn something from reading a well-written article. Emily is thus the person who best understands that a good story is not just meant to be read but heard, not just meant to be examined but deeply felt.

“The Lifespan of a Fact” is playing through April 6, 2025, at Oil Lamp Theatre, 1723 Glenview Road, in Glenview.

Tickets: $55

Performance schedule:

Thursdays and Fridays – 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays – 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays – 3:00 p.m.
Additional performances on Wednesday, March 19th and Wednesday, April 2nd at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and on Wednesday, March 26th at 7:30 p.m.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: https://www.oillamptheater.org/.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Lifespan of a Fact”.