Caught this last night and liked it a lot. It's not entirely successful in it's attempt at epic theater but it's fast-moving and never dull.
I agree with Alife6, this will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I never looked at my watch for the almost 3 hour run time.
In a world of intermissionless 90-minute plays and short attention spans, Rajiv Joseph should be commended for attempting to create this kind of theater. Not all of the ideas work and the ending is a little ambiguous and feels mildly shortchanged, but the inter-related stories that span various times and places keep your attention.
I don't want to give away spoilers, although there is so much going on, they probably wouldn't make much sense, anyway.
The play addresses micro and macro effects of truth vs. lies, the subjective & objective nature of truth, its interpretation and the impact of totalitarianism and freedom on all of it. It sounds dry, but it's not. Unfortunately, where the work doesn't quite succeed is that there are so many issues presented, some are, by necessity, given short shrift. I hesitate to say the play should have been longer, but maybe.
Interestingly, this play was written before the current political/media climate and today's era of exposed, fake-news media outlets & social media rumor-mills.
Given the worldwide, Leftist campaign, particularly at university and government levels, to crush free speech and the scourge of political correctness stifling creativity and distorting truth, Mr. Joseph is surprisingly prescient. Joseph leaves much on the floor, so to speak and I'd love to see an early draft of this play.
To his great credit, however, Mr. Joseph assumes his audience is intelligent enough to do some of the work, to think about what is a lie and what is a truth and how each is interpreted by themselves and others. He is never condescending or obvious in a Caryl Churchill sort of way, which is refreshing and most welcome.
I would recommend this on many levels and would see it again.
