Q: There are plenty of stories that cross artistic mediums: books become television shows and movies, short stories are turned into musicals, Shakespeare gets adapted to ballet, fashion designers are inspired by visual art and architecture. But when the basis for the art is real-life, things might get a little sticky if permissions with artistic license are taken too far. To your mind, how does this play discuss the responsibility that art has to truth, when the art is directly inspired by real-life facts?
A: Art has had a complex relationship with "real-life" since inception. Henry VIII was dismayed when his "to-be" Anne of Cleaves didn't quite resemble the beautiful portrait he had been sent. Patrons of the art exhibit at The Grand Central Palace were in arms about whether Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (an ordinary urinal signed by the artist) could even be considered art. In 2019, podcasts like My Favorite Murder have to issue "corrections" every week as their fast and loose comedic style often comes at the expense of journalistic precision or even accurate pronunciation of names and places.
The Lifespan of a Fact doesn't try to resolve this complex relationship in one hour traffic on the stage. The Lifespan of a Fact allows its characters to try and paint boundaries around fact and art without giving the audience an easily packaged answer. Rather than a sermon, it's much more of a debate....a debate that includes slamming doors, traffic diagrams, and strangulation.
