Directing · Comedy · 2024
A play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell
Based on the book by John D'Agata & Jim Fingal
The Story
A prominent New York magazine is struggling to survive. Its one hope: a transcendent essay by celebrated writer John D'Agata about the suicide of a teenage boy in Las Vegas. The piece is assigned to Jim Fingal, a fresh-out-of-Harvard fact-checker, for a routine verification pass. Fingal finds 130 factual inaccuracies.
What follows is a comedic yet gripping battle between two people who are both entirely right. D'Agata defends every liberty as essential to the emotional truth of the essay. Fingal insists that truth is not a matter of artistic license. Their editor, caught between them, must decide what the magazine stands for — and what it will stake its survival on.
Based on a real dispute that sparked a nationwide media debate about facts, narrative, and the ethics of storytelling, the play is both a tightly wound comedy of ideas and a portrait of a media landscape under pressure. As relevant in 2024 as when it opened on Broadway in 2018.
"Terrifically funny dialogue… once the writer and the fact-checker get into a lively debate on the ethics of factual truth vs. the beauty of literary dishonesty, it's time to really sit up and listen."
— VarietyDirector's Statement
"This play lives or dies on the question of who the audience agrees with — and the trick is making sure they're never entirely sure."
The great pleasure of directing a comedy of ideas is that the laughs and the argument are the same thing. Every time Jim catches D'Agata in a fabrication, it's funny — and it matters. Every time D'Agata defends his artistic license, it's funny — and it matters. The comedy is not relief from the argument; the comedy is the argument.
In 2024, this material arrived with an urgency its writers couldn't have entirely anticipated. The question of what constitutes a fact — who gets to decide, what the stakes are, what we lose when we let narrative override truth — has moved from editorial rooms to the center of public life. The play doesn't take a side. It insists on holding both, and trusting the audience to sit in that discomfort.
Working with a cast of three exceptional actors, each fully committed to the logic of their character's position, the production aimed for exactly that: a night where you laugh the whole way through and leave arguing with whoever came with you.
— Blake Hamman, Director
Production Photography
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Recognition
The Lifespan of a Fact received seven nominations at the 34th ATAC Globe Awards — the most of any comedy production in the season. For a three-person play, the breadth of recognition across direction, all three lead performances, and three technical categories is a testament to the cohesion of the entire company's work.
The production competed in one of the strongest comedy fields in recent ATAC history, alongside fellow 100A productions Talley's Folly and The Revolutionists, and was nominated for Outstanding Production of a Comedy.
Direction · Comedy
Blake Hamman
34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Lead Performer · Male · Comedy
Andy Thornton
as John D'Agata · 34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Lead Performer · Male · Comedy
Michael Roberts
as Jim Fingal · 34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Lead Performer · Female · Comedy
Emily Spicer
as Emily Penrose · 34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Scene Design · Play
Edward Diaz
34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Lighting Design · Play
Chuck Drew
34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Sound Design · Play
Chuck Drew
34th ATAC Globe Nominee
Outstanding Production · Comedy
The Lifespan of a Fact
100A Productions · 34th ATAC Globe Nominee
The production competed in one of the strongest comedy fields in recent ATAC history, alongside fellow 100A productions Talley's Folly and The Revolutionists, and was nominated for Outstanding Production of a Comedy.
Response
"Congratulations to the cast, crew and 100A Productions on their presentation of The Lifespan of a Fact. A great theatrical evening!"
"It becomes this incredibly emotional, hilarious back-and-forth conversation and debate… The writing is super sharp."
"There's not some big declaration… It's really a conversation and an exploration of the different viewpoints surrounding truth versus fact."
Company
John D'Agata
Andy Thornton
ATAC Nominated · Lead Male in a Comedy
Jim Fingal
Michael Roberts
ATAC Nominated · Lead Male in a Comedy
Emily Penrose
Emily Spicer
ATAC Nominated · Lead Female in a Comedy
Creative Team
Direction
Blake Hamman
ATAC Nominated · Direction of a Comedy
Scene Design
Edward Diaz
ATAC Nominated
Lighting & Sound Design
Chuck Drew
ATAC Nominated · both categories
Production Photography
Jessica Mewborne
Mewborne Photography
Produced By
100A Productions
at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
About the Production
100A Productions is the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts' resident theater company, presenting innovative work in the intimate Carlos Alvarez Studio Theatre. The 2024–25 season — which included The Lifespan of a Fact, Talley's Folly, and The Revolutionists — earned the company an extraordinary number of ATAC Globe nominations across all three productions.
The Lifespan of a Fact opened the season on September 4, 2024, running through September 15. It marked Blake's second production with 100A, having previously appeared as Doc Porter in Crimes of the Heart.
About the play: Based on a real editorial dispute at The Believer magazine in the early 2000s, the play was adapted for the stage by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell. It opened on Broadway in October 2018, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale, and Cherry Jones.
The original book by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal was named a Top 10 Most Crucial Book by Slate, a Best Book of the Year by The Huffington Post, and an Editor's Choice by The New York Times Book Review.