Dan Myers
Carrie Sweet (right) plays a damaged young woman who discovers a rare stamp collection.
In Theresa Rebeck’s play Mauritius, every character is desperate to get his or her hands on a very rare set of stamps, the one- and two-penny “post office” stamps that were issued in the mid-19th century by a tiny British colony in the Indian Ocean. This desperation to own the “crown jewels of philately” relentlessly drives the Madison Theatre Guild production, presented at the Bartell Theatre through March 19, and makes for a tense and engrossing night of theater.
When Jackie (a sensitive but determined Carrie Sweet) stumbles into a collectibles shop owned by Philip (a prickly Dennis Yadon), she has no idea if the stamp collection found in her late mother’s attic is worth anything. But she is hoping at least one of those antiquated slips of paper will help her out of her current situation. After suffering through what’s alluded to be a miserable childhood, followed by the loss of her mother to cancer, Jackie is left to sort through the house and pay off the medical bills that have accumulated. Her older half-sister Mary (a sour Molly Vanderlin) has come to help, but after being estranged from the family for many years, the two have little connection. While Jackie sees the stamp collection as recompense for being her mother’s caregiver and an opportunity to escape from crushing debt, Mary insists the album has inestimable sentimental value for her, and that she is the rightful owner.
Meanwhile at the collectibles shop, Dennis (an amiable Scott Stanley) has set his sights on brokering a deal between Jackie and an extremely temperamental, extremely rich client. Dennis tries to ingratiate himself to both sisters, while whetting the appetite of his prospective buyer, Sterling (a charismatic and frightening Donavon Armbruster).
The drama plays out in a series of high-stakes negotiations that, at times, leave the audience breathless. Director Dana Pellebon rightly set the pace of the dialogue fast and tight to keep viewers riveted. The three sectioned set, designed by Fred-Allen Self, also helps the play maintain momentum, because it’s not bogged down by complicated scene changes.
The script is not perfect. It leaves a few of the characters and their back stories underdeveloped, and frequently feels like a cross between a TV crime show (Rebeck writes for several of them) and a riff on a Mamet play. But it does have some heart and its fair share of surprises.
If you are a philately devotee, certainly the story of Mauritius will be irresistible. But the real reason to see this play is the performances of the incredibly talented cast, led by Donavon Armbruster. Dressed in a black suit and sporting a gold chain, Armbruster is stunning in his role as the mercurial buyer. His low, menacing voice purrs demands until his rage erupts, coursing through his whole body. Carrie Sweet also does a terrific job of toggling back and forth between her character’s complicated emotions of bitterness, jealousy, desperation and hope. A fragile soul who tries to mask her “damaged” past with a tough-as-nails veneer, she bluffs and pushes her way through the play, trying to leave her miserable circumstances behind and start fresh.
As several of the characters note, it’s the printing errors in old stamps that make them valuable. Similarly, it is the frailties of the characters in Mauritius that make them fascinating.
