Ernest Hemingway once said of Martha Gellhorn, the war correspondent and his third wife, that she knew "everything about humanity but nothing about human beings." Is it possible that Gellhorn, whose 60-year career spanned conflicts from the Italian Front to Israel, could see the world clearly but not herself or others?

That's the question posed in David Hay's new play The Maddening Truth, which runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 23 at the Clurman Theater in New York. Hay, a Men's Vogue contributor, explores Gellhorn's quest to write a compelling novel in her 60s -- as if a more authentic version of the truth, missing from her reporting dispatches, could be found in fiction. "Of course, one would like to be known for one's novels," Gellhorn says in one scene, discussing her legacy in an interview with a young journalist. "It's the highest form there is." 

Broadway veteran Lisa Emery plays Gellhorn with steely strength and biting delivery. And Hay's wry Scotch-soaked script is balanced nicely by Beowulf Boritt's starkly elegant set design.

Gellhorn, who died in 1998 at age 89, famously refused to talk or write about Hemingway or the five years they were married. A woman in a man's macho profession and the wife of a legendary writer, it's no wonder she had trouble seeing herself clearly. At least now, the rest of us can. --REBECCA MYERS

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