Synopsis
Perfect Mendacity
Published by Samuel French Inc
4 Male 1 Female
Walter Kreutzer, a microbiologist for a defense contractor, is being investigated by his employers over an incriminating memo that was leaked to the media
Walter thinks his Moroccan wife may have done the whistleblowing, and to protect her - and himself - Walter needs to learn how to defeat a lie detector ...
... and fast!
D'avore Peoples, a polygraph consultant, is happy to help
For a price, of course
But D'avore's technique will require Walter to look deep within himself - a terrifying prospect for a man hiding from his past
With his best friend spying on him, his wife intent on opening old wounds, and D'avore uncovering dark secrets
Walter's desperate journey toward the perfect lie becomes a spiral into paranoia and bitter reckoning
The Cast ...
WALTER KREUTZER 50s, white American
D'AVORE PEOPLES 40s, black American
SAMIRA KREUTZER 30s or 40s, Moroccan
ROGER STANHOPE 50s, white South African
DR. DOLL
"The play wears its politics lightly ... letting slip bits of information that we then can combine into sense ... Funny, at moments, hilarious, with much of the humor coming from characters who are always more human than symbolic ... I want to recommend Perfect Mendacity not just as a couple of entertaining hours of theater, which it certainly is, but as a rare attempt to witness real political art, the sort that seldom turns up on the American scene" ~ Mark E. Leib, Creative Loafing
"A sharp meditation on the nature of truth and lies in the post 9-11 world ... Jason Wells conjures the same sort of nerve-jangling menace found in his earlier play Men Of Tortuga. But here he spins a story that bears a downright eerie prescience ... Wells' play is wired with a dazzling, tightly wound, steel-spring mechanism that keeps you riveted" ~ Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
"As he proved in his play Men of Tortuga, Jason Wells knows how to build suspense and tension with clever and intriguing dialogue that clips along" ~ Jay Handelman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
"This look at intrigue, duplicity and self-deception in the corporate world resonates in every aspect of human endeavor" ~ American Theatre Critics Association