Finding truth in the post-truth era

In her debut performance with STC, icon of the Australian screen and stage Sigrid Thornton will lead this thrilling, stylish and hyperintelligent hit Broadway comedy that tackles the great question of our time: true or false?

Thornton plays the shrewd, sharp-tongued Emily Penrose, an editor at a prestigious magazine, who assigns what she thinks will be a simple task to Jim, a young intern. Jim, played by Charles Wu (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui), is thrilled to be given the once-in-a lifetime assignment: the chance to fact check a new essay by a writer he idolises, John D’Agata – played by Gareth Davies (Home, I’m Darling).

But as Jim methodically begins his work, holding each detail up to the light, he discovers that separating fact from fiction is not such an easy job. Together, these three titanic personalities must negotiate their competing goals, egos, and values to reach some semblance of the truth and get the article to print.

For fans of The Newsroom and The West Wing, The Lifespan of a Fact is a timely investigation of the old truism “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Directed by STC Associate Director Paige Rattray (Triple X, Death of a Salesman), this high-octane production questions how, in our age of fake news and big data, we’ll ever get to a world that’s post-post-truth.