Mauritius : “Betrayal and treason and poor behaviour.”

By Jamie Portman | May 5, 2014

Photo. Maria Vartanova

That’s how Theresa Rebeck once described the things that interest her as a playwright. And she certainly delivers them in spades with her 2007 comedy-thriller, Mauritius, which has romped onto the playbill of the Ottawa Little Theatre in a confident and entertaining production.

The words fly like bullets in Rebeck’s script. And they’re laced with profanity — lots of profanity — which we quickly discover is essential to the rhythms and cadences of the dialogue. One could be churlish and suggest that much of Mauritius sounds like warmed-over Mamet, but that would be unjust, particularly since we’re enjoying the company of its assorted schemers and low-lifers so much. So let’s assume instead that Rebeck — who served an impressive apprenticeship writing television scripts for the likes of N.Y.P.D. Blue — has penned an affectionate homage to David Mamet, with a special nod to his play, American Buffalo

American Buffalo dealt with skulduggery in the world of rare coins and gave Al Pacino a major stage success. With Mauritius, we’re immersed in the obsessive and ruthless world of stamp-collecting. The title refers to two priceless philatelic issues from the island of Mauritius — 19^th Century stamps so rare that they leave a trio of somewhat seedy male collectors slavering at the prospect of gaining possession.

Trouble is that the stamps — assuming they’re the Real McCoy —are part of a collection inherited by two sisters who can’t even agree over which of them really has legal claim to it. And the guys who want to gain possession, by quasi-legitimate means or foul, are only intermittently acting in concert with each other. One of the guilty pleasures of Rebeck’s crafty and maliciously funny script is that you never know who’s going to be double-crossed next.

Director Chantale Plante infuses the play’s rapidly changing events with the high-octane energy they require, although her production might have been even better with some variations in pace and rhythm. And Graham Price, faced with the demands of multiple settings in the course of six scenes, has come through with some splendidly functional designs, which also ensure swift scenery changes.

The solid ensemble qualities of this production are sustained from the moment that a young woman called Jackie walks tremulously into a stamp shop toting an old album containing a collection she wants evaluated. Laura Hall carries out this pivotal character’s early scenes with a coltish earnestness that seems thoroughly convincing; to say that she ends up fooling us all is to applaud her skill at keeping us wondering whether she is really what she seems.

Lawrence Evenchick does some nice work as the snotty stamp dealer who’s so disdainful of this seemingly naive customer that he won’t even look at her stamps or offer her the slightest hope that they might be worth something.

A guy called Dennis is also in the shop. He’s friendliness incarnate the way Chris Cottrell plays him — and sure, he’ll glance through her album for her. When he does so and sees what’s on one of the pages, we can almost see the money parade dancing before his eyes. A play like this must have one charming rogue, and Dennis amiably fills the bill — unlike Laura’s half-sister, Mary, who in Cindy Beaton’s solid performance delivers a mixture of mulish greed and suppressed hysteria, and definitely unlike the menacing and foul-mouthed Sterling, a psychopathic co-conspirator who, thanks to John Collins’s splendidly incisive portrayal, is about as comforting as a flame-thrower.

Mauritius continues at Ottawa Little Theatre to May 17, 2014

Mauritius

By Theresa Rebeck

Ottawa Little Theatre

Director: Chantale Plante

Set: Graham Price

Lighting: Paul Gardner

Sound: Bob Krukowski

Costumes: Renee Dupuis-Leon.

Cast:

Jackie……………………………………Laura Hall

Philip…………………………………….Lawrence Evenchick