Jason Wells

Perfect Mendacity Jason Wells

DramaCharacters: 4 males, 1 femalesWinner! 2010 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an Emerging Playwright 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 whistle-blowing, and to protect her - and himself - Walter needs to learn how to beat 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 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 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"... This look at intrigue, duplicity and self-deception in the corporate world resonates in every aspect of human endeavor." -American Theatre Critics Association "One would think a drama about a government defense contractor's secret cover-ups and the people woven within them would be heavy and intense, but playwright Jason Wells surprises with witty comedy in the most unlikely moments while keeping the intensity alive... Wells' dialogue, coupled with the story's imagination, flows nicely. It is enjoyable to watch each scene build to a climax, then soften somewhat, leaving the audience intrigued, laughing or, in the end, completely stunned." -Bradenton Herald"Intriguing and exciting!" -Sarasota Magazine