The Lifespan of a Fact at PTC

Last night I went to see The Lifespan of a Fact, the current production at PTC.  The premise of this play was very intriguing to me so I was eager to see it.  When a powerful essay written by John D'Agata (Ben Cherry) lands on the desk of magazine editor Emily Penrose (Constance Macy), she knows it has the potential to impact her magazine's bottom line and possibly win some major awards.  She wants to use it as the cover story but she is on a tight deadline.  She enlists a young Harvard-educated intern named Jim Fingal (John Kroft) to fact-check it over the weekend.  All she wants is a good-faith effort to keep the lawyers happy but Fingal, wanting to do a good job to impress her, obsessively researches every minute detail.  He even goes so far as to fly to Las Vegas to verify some details and to get clarification from the author himself.  D'Agata does not take kindly to having his work questioned so Penrose eventually ends up in Las Vegas to play referee between the two of them (in some highly amusing scenes).  D'Agata argues that he is trying to find a universal truth about the meaning of life through the story of a boy who commits suicide and that the details do not matter.  Fingal argues that, in an age when anyone with a smartphone can verify every fact, he will lose credibility if anything is proven to be false thereby lessening the impact.  I really enjoyed the verbal sparring between the two characters and I found myself agreeing with both sides of the argument (I love and hate it when that happens).  My favorite scene occurs near the end of the play when, after a night of arguing back and forth, Penrose must make a decision whether to publish or not.  The three of them read the paragraph about the boy's final moments before jumping off a building aloud and are incredibly moved.  The audience is left to wonder if the emotional impact of that paragraph would be diminished if the prose was amended to correct a bit of minutiae.  The topic is particularly salient in the age of "fake news" and I think it is very powerful.  All three characters are interesting and compelling and the actors give wonderful performances.  Even though it is very cerebral without a lot of action, the narrative moves at a very steady pace (there is no intermission) so I was always completely engaged.  This play will definitely give you a lot to think about and I highly recommend it!  The Lifespan of a Fact runs at PTC until November 16 (go here for tickets).