Hurlin brings famed editor's life to the stage

Recreating the career of Depression-era conservative newspaper publisher William Loeb, Dan Hurlin performed his solo piece, "NO (thing as powerful as) TRUTH" this weekend. Hurlin, a New Hampshire native and the recipient of a 1994 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Solo Performance, treated a mostly older crowd to a multimedia presentation in the Moore theater at the Hopkins Center. The performance combined events from Loeb's life as a muckraking, "print now and check the facts later" newspaper publisher with stories from his own life and references to Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," to examine the role of the media in shaping social truth. "There is a rule in journalism which states that if anything is repeated three times it becomes true," Hurlin said three times at the climax of the show. A montage of images from the show and literary works such as Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through the Looking Glass," presented in the flickering light of a movie camera highlighted the climax of the performance. Dan Froot, composer, saxophone player and recipient of a 1991 New York Dance and Performance Award for the creation of his music/theater work "17 Kilo's of Garlic," provided the music for the performance. Hayes' lighting effects, which included printed word displays on a screen behind Hurlin and the use of Hurlin himself as a movie screen, punctuated Hurlin's message about the constructed nature of the truth in media. Hurlin's message about the media seemed to come across for Dartmouth students who attended the event. "I'm not sure if he was representing a real historical figure, but it seemed he was making a statement about the media and its influence ... especially the references to 'Citizen Kane,'" said Kyle Ancowitz '98.