By Sheila Barth
BOX INFO: One-act, 90-minute play by Jeremy Kareken and David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell, based on the book/essay by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal, starring superstar Lindsay Crouse, through September 22, at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main St., Gloucester. Showtimes: Wednesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m; matinees, Saturday, Sunday, 2 p.m.. $15-$48; discounts for military families, senior citizens, college students, 18-year-olds-under, and Cape Ann residents. 978-281-4433, gloucesterstage.com.
When is a fact a fact?
When is it necessary to tell the truth factually, not creatively?
When do details overshadow a creative effort to gather and write a compelling essay?
What is the difference between a journalist and a writer?
What about fake news?
These issues and more are
entertainingly explored and punctuated in Gloucester Stage Company’s first
regional production of recent, one-act, 90-minute Broadway hit, “The Lifespan
of a Fact,” performed through September 22. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry
Jones and Bobby Cannavale, the play enjoyed a successful world premiere
Broadway run, closing January 2019.
Playwrights Jeremy Kareken and David Murrell, along with Gordon Farrell, drive
home the point – when is it okay to obscure facts in lieu of exciting,
enhancing – at times fictitious – writing?
Directed by prolific, versatile award-winning Sam Weisman, who has helmed,
starred in, created and produced a multiplicity of films, TV series, plays, and
more, “The Lifespan of a Fact” progresses swiftly through mounting controversy
between esteemed, unorthodox writer-essayist John D’Agata, overzealous Harvard
grad fact-checking intern Jim Fingal, and the mediating besieged,
oft-frustrated magazine editor Emily Penrose.
Penrose has assigned Fingal to fact-check celebrated author D’Agata’s essay
about a tragic suicide in Las Vegas and related events that, initially, seem to
be wild, wacky circumstances surrounding the young adult’s death. Overhead
monitors and off-stage, electronic voices relay seemingly bizarre information.
The monitors also establish each day, time of day, and special effects. Designer
Michael Griggs’ set is sparse with few carried-on props, but the cozy
Gloucester production is further enhanced by award-winning sound designer Dewey
Dellay’s off-stage battery of piped-in voices and Marcy Barbeau’s lighting. Gracious,
accomplished actress Lindsay Crouse, of filmdom, TV and stage fame, portrays
Penrose, who tries to maintain a successful balance between writer D’Agata
(terrific Mickey Solis) and eager-to-please, irritatingly overzealous intern
Fingal, whom actor Derek Speedy portrays with comedic nerdiness. The
superlative trio’s razor-sharp, quick-witted timing is impeccable.
Theatergoers can’t help laughing heartily at Derek Speedy’s super-comedic
antics, facial and body expressions, and crisp delivery of his lines. While
Penrose and D’Agata’s irritation with him escalates, so does ours. Fingal is
dazzled that he’s going to call and double-check facts with the author, who
hates to be called or bothered; so he must tread softly. However, Fingal
nit-picks several issues and facts so relentlessly, he goes to D’Agata’s Nevada
apartment to present and settle his findings. The more Fingal asks, the more
errors he finds, and the more irritated and angry D’Agata becomes. He calls
Penrose a few times to get rid of Fingal, but it doesn’t work.
Determined to do a superlative job, Fingal visits witnesses and related
persons, proving D’Agata’s work is very flawed. Angered to the boiling point,
D’Agata spouts his writing demands creative nuance and shouldn’t be trivialized
by minutia. “You must stop treating me like a journalist,” he demands. “I’m an
essayist.”
But the dogged Fingal retorts, some major facts don’t add up and others don’t
exist.
Through D’Agata’s urging, Penrose arrives at D’Agata’s apartment to intervene,
allowing the trio to work together, hesitantly. Where do you draw the line? Find out at Gloucester
Stage.
