What is a fact? I thought I knew. I believed everything my teachers taught me in school. I believed all that I read in a newspaper. Opinions were reserved for the editorial page. Facts were facts and couldn’t be changed… or could they?
“The Lifespan of a Fact” explores a story of a teenager who committed suicide in Las Vegas as written up by a noted writer. Jack (Adam Howard), an intern at the magazine and a recent Harvard graduate, is assigned the task of fact checking the writer’s story and he finds lots of discrepancies. The first one is a simple one- he says in the essay that there were 34 strip clubs in Vegas instead of the 31 that the fact checker, Jim, discovers. It turns out that the writer, John (Ian Merrill Peakes) has an affinity for certain numbers, and he has changed many in his piece.
Emily Penrose (Karen Peakes) is Jim’s supervisor at the magazine, and she is the one who told Jim to “confirm every detail” in John’s essay. She had no idea he would discover so many discrepancies. And she is a very anxious person herself. Now she is in the middle of the grappling between the two men because John’s 15-page essay will sell lots of magazines for the company which is struggling to stay afloat. But if people or companies sue them for inaccurate facts, it will go down.
As for John, he argues that facts get in the way of the story. He lied about other deaths that day including another suicide in his essay. Big stuff and small stuff- he knows no boundaries.
Meanwhile, Jim is a stickler for details, His spread sheet is over 130 pages and includes a challenge as to the number of seconds it takes to fall 1149 feet, the distance the teenager fell when he jumped from the tower of the hotel. John wrote 9 seconds because he likes that number. Jim argues that it takes 8 seconds. And lest I forget, he is most passionate in his arguments. There are so many disputed points and in less capable hands, they might become tedious. But Director Matt Pfeiffer has done such an impeccable job in guiding these three wonderful actors, that we are constantly wondering what will come next. Will either of the men retreat?
I saw this play three and a half years ago at another Philadelphia theater. It was directed by Pfeiffer and Ian Merrill Peakes performed the same role. I came away liking only parts of it. But this production is great. Peakes repeats his fine performance but in this production, he has Karen Peakes and Adam Howard to play opposite, and they are so passionately real. Is it the actors? Did the director do something different? I don’t remember. All I know is that this play came alive, especially in today’s times where we feel lied to by the people in power. Whatever it is, this production is a must see!
“The Lifespan of a Fact” by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, ane Gordon Farrell at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue, Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200, act2.org Thru November 8, 2026
