Mauritius
Mauritius
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
March 3rd 2011
"The bond between two half-sisters is tested when Jackie decides she can solve all her financial problems by selling her grandfather's exceptional stamp collection. As Jackie shrewdly tries to cash in on a pair of rare stamps from the island of Mauritius, she learns how dangerous stamp collecting can be! Contemporary playwright Theresa Rebeck has written a cat-and-mouse game like no other, full of twists, turns and plenty of suspense."
Cast
Philip: C. Michael Wright
Dennis: Jonathan Wainwright
Jackie: Sara Zientek
Sterling: Drew Brhel
Mary: Betsy Skowbo
I've never been in the studio theatre before, all of the other productions that I have seen have been in the bigger theatre. It was fairly small, but I don't think it was really tiny.
Part of the reason that I really wanted to see this show was just because of the tag line. It was a show about the perils of stamp collecting. One really doesn't think of stamp collecting as a perilous hobby, but really, it's just like being obsessed with anything else.
I thought that the entire cast was fantastic. They played off each other very well. Sterling and Phil were my favorite characters.
Another thing that was done very well in the show was keeping up the plot twists and turns. I never really knew what to expect, and I didn't really try to figure out what was happening, who was telling the truth and who wasn't because I figured it would all come out at the end. Everybody was lying about something at some point. At the end of the show, there were still a lot of unanswered questions, but I didn't mind that so much. Lots of things were very strongly implied, even though they weren't explicitly stated. More on that later.
The dialogue in the play was so much fun. Most of the characters did say what they were really thinking or what they really meant. It was either because they didn't know how to say things, or they didn't want to, or other people wouldn't let them. It was almost sort of frustrating (in a good way) to watch them confuse and frustrate each other. I found myself thinking that if they would just speak in complete sentences sometimes, that they wouldn't have nearly as many problems.
The play took place in three different locations. A stamp store, a diner and Jackie's home. It mostly took place in the stamp store though, with one short scene in the diner and two scenes at Jackie's house. Along the very top of the stage, we had the reverse window signs that said "Stamps." There was a display case and a table with two chairs. The walls on the sides were completely lined with cardboard boxes. I sort of wonder if there was anything in the boxes. Some of them doubled as chairs for people, so they had to be pretty sturdy. There were a few other random things on the back wall, a fan, an old TV and what looked like a rather nice stereo system. None of these things were used in the show.
When we were in Jackie's home, one of the side walls folded out, and on the reverse side from the shelves of boxes we had a nicely wall papered wall.
The play centers around the ownership of two very valuable stamps. It was very nice that they had an explanation in the playbill about them. They were some of the very first postage stamps printed, from the island of Mauritius, and they had a typo on them.
The play opened with the owner of the stamp shop, Phil, sitting behind the display case, reading a book. Dennis was sitting off to the side reading a paper. Then Jackie came in with a book of stamps. She started talking to Phil about how "they said you know about stamps" and that she was sent to talk to him, because she has some stamps that she thinks are valuable, but she's not sure.
Her opening lines were fantastic, as she spoke in a sort of rambling manner. "This guy I know, well I don't really know him, but he works at a store where I go sometimes, and he said that you knew about stamps, so I came here with my stamps, because he said that you'd know if they were worth anything or not. At least, I think they are worth something, but I'm not sure. They might be fakes. Well, I'm sure that they're not fakes, but I just don’t really know."
Quite a bit of the dialogue in the play went like that, and it worked really well. It heightened the tension, but it also made things a bit comedic as well. At times, characters would be very upset, but at the same time, the way that they delivered their lines made things rather funny.
Phil pretty much ignored her. He was sort of a jerk throughout the whole play, but it was sort of justified. He's a stamp collector himself, and an appraiser, but he's tired of people only valuing stamps for their money. I guess that most of the people who came in to have things appraised went on to sell them, and he was tired of that. I liked him, he was pretty funny even when he probably wasn't meant to be. I really liked his tone and expressions when he would say his lines. For example, a very firm: "I'm busy" and then he would turn the page in his book.
Ultimately, Phil refuses to appraise her stamps, so Dennis offers to, even though he's not an expert. Phil very firmly tells Jackie that Dennis is not an expert. Dennis told Jackie that she had one somewhat valuable stamp, an inverted Jenny that might be worth two thousand dollars, but that was it. He was lying.
At the diner (which was shown by turning the display case around and setting dishes on it) Dennis meets with Sterling. Sterling is a rather excitable man. He had a definite aura of a gangster about him, and he and Dennis were having a very serious discussion. About stamps. Sterling is apparently an avid stamp collector, and he is very upset that Dennis touched some very valuable stamps. One thing that I found rather amusing about this show was the fact that everyone was deadly serious about the stamps.
Jackie revealed to the audience that at least some of the boxes on the set were not completely empty as she opened some of them to go through. I really liked the transition to Jackie's house, it was just a simple set change, but it was enough to convey that we were in an entirely different place. We met the remaining character, Mary, who is Jackie's half sister. The contrast between them was pretty clear from the start in their wardrobe. While Jackie was not dressed like a slob, she was in jeans and a sweatshirt while Mary was dressed much nicer in a pink dress. As it came out, Mary was sent away to boarding school when she was a young teenager while Jackie stayed behind to deal with her abusive father. It's never said that he was, but it's pretty strongly implied.
Jackie and Mary clearly do not get along, although Jackie is trying. Another thing that is not said, but is strongly implied, is that Jackie's mother left behind quite a bit of debt, and Jackie thought that Mary could help out, but all that Mary is doing is annoying Jackie.
The stamp collection belonged, originally, to Mary's grandfather, not Jackie's. But their mother gave the stamp collection, and everything else, to Jackie, because Mary had basically cut off all contact with her mother and sister. Mary and Jackie are in the midst of arguing about the stamp collection when Dennis unhelpfully arrives.
So there we have it. Jackie wants to sell the stamps. Mary does not want to sell the stamps. Sterling wants to buy the stamps. Dennis is the go between. And Phil… wants nothing to do with any of this.
There were a few memorable scenes. I already mentioned that I liked the opening, with Phil being very busy reading a book and ignoring Jackie.
Another memorable moment was when Jackie finally snaps. Mary leaves, taking the stamps with her, and Jackie starts putting things back in boxes. Thinking about everything that is going on, with all the problems with her sister, and with Dennis being generally annoying, Jackie snaps. She starts throwing things all over the stage, emptying boxes and throwing papers and knitting supplies, and various and assorted other things all over the place. (Yes, knitting supplies.) Then she finds some cigarettes and lights up. I don't know what they were using, because it didn't smell or anything, but it made a lot of smoke.
I also liked the scene with the "sale" between Jackie and Sterling. It was such a big deal. The exchange took place at Phil's shop, although Phil was not there. Dennis was facilitating, and he was quite nervous.
I liked a moment when the two of them were waiting for Sterling to arrive. They were having some awkward conversations. One thing that got said repeatedly, was that Dennis asked Jackie how much she wanted for the stamps, and she would ask him how much he was willing to pay. She does not want to be taken advantage of. They had some long conversations that didn't go anywhere, just kept circling back to that same thing.
But there was one moment when the conversation, just for a few moments, was a lot more relaxed. Dennis asked her about the comic book store, and what comic she was getting. He managed to convince her that he actually was interested, and Jackie really lit up. She went on for a couple minutes about the comic book, and Dennis really did seem interested. His character had not been established as that good of an actor for him to be faking interest.
Then Sterling arrived. He came in with a suitcase of money. Then the negotiations started again. He asked her how much she wanted for the stamps. She asked him how much he wanted to give her. And once again they were at an impasse.
Sterling, far from being angry, is impressed with her. I guess he sees a lot of himself in Jackie, and that both impresses and annoys him. He knows how he does business, and he is good at it, but he would not like to do business with someone who operates the way he does. He tells her that they are basically both trying to cheat each other, but if they can come to a mutually satisfactory agreement, then both can leave happy. He recognizes that she knows that she has something that he really wants, and she is going to make him work for it.
Sterling finally sets out the suitcase and opens it. He tells Jackie that they could negotiate for the stamps, but honestly, this is as much money as he is willing to pay. He says that she could probably get more for the stamps on the open market, but no one else is going to offer cash with no strings attached.
Jackie is astonished by all the money, it's more than she's ever seen before in her life. But she doesn't take the offer until Sterling laughs and takes three more wads of money out of his pockets and puts them on the pile.
All is going well until Mary and Phil come in. Phil studies the stamps and promptly pronounces them fakes. Sterling is very angry, and he gets violent. But they calm him down, and he storms off, taking all his money with him. Jackie is devastated, and is very angry at her sister. Mary just spouts off her one line that she kept saying over and over and over again, "They weren't yours to sell."
Jackie gathers up the book of stamps sadly and is about to leave when Phil, very calmly and suspiciously, asks her where she's going. The stamps are real. But he sides with Mary on this, he thinks they should go to a museum.
There was a fun and very tense scene where Jackie snatches the two stamps in question away, and holds up a lighter to them. It was funny to watch the reactions of the others. She'd move the lighter closer and they'd all back away. Again, all over stamps.
As the play ends, everyone is sorta happy. Except Sterling, maybe. Dennis steals another stamp which is also valuable, not quite as valuable as the Mauritius stamps, but still valuable, and he and Jackie split. Mary and Phil presumably sold the rest of the stamp collection to a museum.
After the show, there was a talk back which was pretty cool. I didn't get to ask my silly questions, because most of the time was occupied with other audience members and the actors getting into serious discussion about the show, and about the character development. Sterling's actor did a pretty good job of leading the talk back, and he sort of confused some of his fellow cast members when he asked them to demonstrate a scene. It was cool to watch him slip from being "Sterling" to "Sterling's actor" in such a quick moment.
One thing that I thought was fun about this show was that the only character who was completely up front and honest about everything was Sterling. And he was a gangster. But he was honest about being a gangster, and honest about being willing to do anything for the stamps.
There were a lot of unanswered questions left behind at the end of the play, but I thought that was okay. I didn't leave being really bothered by wondering about all the things that were hinted at. We just saw one day in the lives of these people, so it was sort of like shopping at the store while all of this was going on, and just watching.