When is a fact a fact?

Not as easy a question as you might think, given that the language we use to evoke and convey facts inevitably is subjective. Also complex is the relationship between fact and storytelling. Consider the recent case of the comedian-storyteller Hasan Minhaj, the subject of a recent exposé in The New Yorker wherein he was forced to admit that some of his stories, including being thrown against a car by a police officer, were not, in fact, true.

Minhaj’s rebuttal was that he was telling “the emotional truth,” which is not the same thing as the actual truth. You might call that a kind of storytellers’ defense, an argument that too much cold-eyed fact-checking inevitably ruins anyone’s ability to communicate a compelling narrative or comedy routine. And that’s precisely the claim made by a gonzo writer-character named John D’Agata (PJ Powers) in “The Lifespan of a Fact,” a 2018 debate play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell that starred Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway.

The 90-minute show has a simple three-character structure. In one corner, you have D’Agata, author of a piece about a suicidal kid jumping off the top of a Las Vegas hotel. In the other corner, you have the intern, Jim Fingal (Alex Benito Rodriguez) who gets the job of fact-checking D’Agata’s multifarious liberties in service of a potent yarn. In the middle of the ring is Emily Penrose (Juliet Hart), the editor of the magazine that published the piece. For the first part of the show, you mostly learn of Jim’s obsessive fact-checking skills, which include getting on a plane to Las Vegas where D’Agata lives. In the last few minutes, thanks to Emily’s absurd arrival in Las Vegas too, you get a bit of the will-she, won’t-she-publish tension, even as the deadline approaches.

I should note that all of this is very much based on truth. D’Agata really did write such a piece (”What Happens There”) and Fingal really did fact-check it. In point of fact (I’ll be here all week), Harper’s Magazine even published some of their email exchanges, based on the book that inspired this very play.

Got all that? Nobody would confuse “Lifespan” with a great American play; it’s far too schematic for that. But it is the kind of smart entertainment designed to get conversations started at a post-show drink. It’s an interesting issue for us journalists, of course, although those of us who prefer newspapers to magazines and talk shows tend to firmly be in Jim’s corner. But D’Agata does have a point when he notes that fact-checking can indeed be taken to extremes, to the point where nobody can actually say anything for sure. If you nerd out on this stuff, you might enjoy this show.

TimeLine’s production is uneven, though. Both Powers and Rodriguez are skilled verbal brawlers onstage and that’s fun to watch in this intimate setting. Powers is especially rich, intriguing and rightly empathetic. But director Mechelle Moe’s production lacks sufficient drive and dramatic tension — it was under-paced on the night I was there, and halting in its energies at times. But much of that flows from a script more determined to spark debate than deliver actual, nuanced characters.

Frankly, the way this thing is written requires all three actors just to insist on their own rectitude, whatever the cost. That’s not the way these debates unfold at media organizations in real life, of course. Strong points of view are common, but most writers who care about truth welcome fact-checkers working to save them from their own mistakes. Great storytelling can survive an insistence on veracity. And, for that matter, so can great comedy.

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Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

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Review: “The Lifespan of a Fact” (2.5 stars)

When: Through Dec. 23

Where: TimeLine Theatre Company, 615 W. Wellington Ave.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Tickets: $52-$72 at 773-281-8463 and www.timelinetheatre.com