‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ Review: Just the Facts

metroweekly.com:

The Lifespan of a Fact (★★★☆☆), an engaging drama by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell, dives right into the abyss in search of what’s true within a soon-to-be-published, nonfiction essay that’s potentially full of fudged facts and fabrications.Either distinction falls over the line from plain old truth.

Capable journalists, historians, and other writers of non-fiction are trusted to know the difference, and to practice something like a code of honor in keeping it real for their readers, who shouldn’t have to fact-check every detail.The play — making its D.C.

premiere in Keegan’s aptly tense, if visually unexciting, production — spins its ideological debate from a cracking contest of wills between a star writer and the fledgling fact checker dispatched to hold the writer’s facts to the fire.At first glance, fact checker Jim Fingal (Iván Carlo), fresh out of Harvard and interning at a prominent New York magazine, would seem to be easily overmatched in a literary duel with acclaimed writer John D’Agata (Colin Smith).

But Jim has truth and virtue on his side to help balance the scales as he parses D’Agata’s latest article — which the author insists on calling an essay.D’Agata’s editor at the magazine, Emily Penrose (Sheri S.