The Lifespan of a Fact at NC Stage Co.
In a time where facts are more important than ever, North Carolina Stage Company’s production of Jeremy Kareken’s, David Murrell’s, and Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact feels especially provocative.
The set design by Jeannie Regan is simple but effective: the stage looks like a high-end office and small apartment at the same time. The play opens with total darkness, then the laptop of John D’Agata (TJ Lancaster) lights up, and, thanks to the projection work by Leo Lei, we the audience read the beginning of an essay on the life of Levi S. Presley, a teenager who killed himself by leaping off the top of a casino in Las Vegas. Next, Emily Penrose (Jennifer Gatti), the editor of an unnamed news magazine, brings intern Jim Fingal (Conor Patrick Donahue, making his debut with NC Stage) in to do basic fact checking on the piece.
Admittedly, there are probably scenes in the 85-minute production that aren’t supposed to be as funny as they come across, but given Donahue’s performance as a slightly neurotic, deeply concerned intern, there were several times when I couldn’t help but laugh. (Blame the former slightly-neurotic-intern I was once upon a time.) Lancaster’s performance is the perfect balance of grumpy, jaded, and lost — lost like someone who’s trying to make something meaningful, even if it blurs the lines between fact and fiction. And Gatti is absolutely wonderful as Emily, with a sense of confidence and self-assuredness that comes with the territory of being an editor in a time when print media is fading away.
Under Candace Taylor’s direction, this small cast delivers an excellent ensemble performance, channeling a perfect level of chemistry that one would expect from a much larger production. The Lifespan of a Fact also posits the compelling question: What’s better, to have a mostly true story that’s embellished with white lies to get the point across, or to have the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Both arguments are presented by Jim and John, and both have merits. It’s up to Emily to decide which argument to follow.
The Lifespan of a Fact runs through Sunday, May 15, at North Carolina Stage Company, with Friday through Sunday shows live-streamed. For details and tickets, visit ncstage.org.
(Photo courtesy of NC Stage Co.)
