Review: MAURITIUS at The Gamm

If you didn’t know any different, you might think that The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, RI is producing a season of David Mamet plays. The first outing was a very successful staging of Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross and their second production is an equally successful production of Mauritius, which was also written by…um…no…wait…which was written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Rachel Walshe.
 
At the heart of Mauritius is the space where commerce intersects greed.

Amanda Ruggiero plays Jackie, a young woman who has recently been orphaned by the long, painful death of her mother. Abandoned by her family, including her half-sister Mary (Casey Seymour Kim), Jackie was the primary caregiver during her mother’s illness.  Barely out of her teens, Jackie enjoys reading comics, but has stared death in the face.

While cleaning out her mother’s things she has come across a stamp collection that originally belonged to her mother‘s father.  An acquaintance has referred her to a local stamp and collectibles shop, where she innocently asks the crusty proprietor, Philip (Jim O’Brien) to look at the collection. Hardened by years of similar requests by people who are hoping for an Antiques Roadshow miracle, Philip refuses to even look at the collection without receiving an appraiser's fee.  Dennis (Steve Kidd), his frenemy, who seems to simply loll about the shop, sees no harm in amusing the young, attractive, woman.  He masks his utter amazement at the collection, which includes not one, but two, priceless stamps issued by the island country of Mauritius. Dennis tells Jackie that she has an interesting and somewhat valuable collection that may be worth a few thousand dollars.

This is where the play quickly gets interesting. 

Dennis and Philip have a mutual “business associate”, Sterling (Richard Donnelly), who is both extraordinarily wealthy and extraordinarily interested in philately.  The trio concoct a scheme to separate Jackie from her stamps.  Unfortunately, the stamps may not belong to Jackie at all.  They may belong to her half-sister, Mary.  The malevolent trio may be working together; they may be working for themselves.  Any one of the trio may be working for Jackie; or they may be working for Mary.  Perhaps all of that is true; perhaps none of it is true.  The uncertainty created by Ms. Rebeck is sometimes frustrating, but always exciting.

Each of the characters is “damaged”.  The characters have damaged each other, some in obvious ways, some ways are left to the imagination. The cast of characters is made up almost entirely of antiheros, which leaves the audience uncommitted, until almost the very end, to what a happy ending should look like.

Richard Donnelly is intense as the wildly unpredictable and amoral Sterling. Donnelly’s sociopathic calmness, which one relates to a myopic obsession, is unnerving. Though the transition from prey to predator is a bit choppy for Ms. Ruggiero, there is something really spectacular about watching her go toe-to-toe with Donnelly when he has a full head of steam going.

The ability to portray equal parts of earnestness and slime, without turning off an audience, must be a difficult line to walk. Steve Kidd, under Ms. Walshe’s direction, pulls it off.  Casey Seymour Kim is barely contained as prodigal daughter Mary. Kim also brings the crazy, but without the calm. With not much to do but be a curmudgeon, Jim O’Brien isn’t taxed, but he certainly delivers.
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Mauritius plays at The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, RI through November 21st. Tickets prices begin at $30 and can be purchased at the Box Office which is located at 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, RI; by phone at (401) 723-4266 or online at www.gammtheatre.org

Photo:  Amanda Ruggiero in Mauritius  / By: Peter Goldberg / Courtesy of The Gamm Theatre

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