Mauritius
Theresa Rebeck
Opening Night Gala
200 pesos
Performances
Sat, Aug 22 8pm
Sun, Aug 23, 5pm
Mon–Tue, Aug 24–25, 8pm
Thur–Sat, Aug 27–29, 8pm
Sun, Aug 30, 5pm

Recession-busting Specials
Saturday shows and front row 
seats for all shows: 100 pesos
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos

Wanted: The million-dollar stamp!
By Rudy Hornish

Players Workshop is producing a two-week run of Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius, a play about…stamp collecting. You might ask, “What? Stamp collecting? Are you serious?”

Well, yes, we’re serious, and might add that Mauritius is a terrific comedy-thriller which explores family tensions, greed, betrayal and personal integrity.

Stakes are high when half-sisters (played by Clara Dunham and Jill Gottlieb) inherit a book of rare stamps that may include the “crown jewel” of the stamp-collecting world. The battle for possession takes a dangerous turn when three rival collectors (played by Jim Newell, Tim Johnson and Tom King) enter the sisters’ world, willing to go to any lengths to stake their claim on the find.

The Twopence Postage Stamp, one of the two infamous Mauritius “Post Office” stamps issued in 1847, has been valued at US$600,000 to $1,000,000. Referred to by collectors as “the holy grail of philately,” this stamp and its partner, the One Penny version, have become incredibly valuable because of a printing mistake.

Let’s back up for just a minute. Mauritius is a small island nation off the African coast in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius was a British Colony at the time of the stamps’ issue. A local watchmaker won the contract to print two stamps—the Twopence and a One Penny. His mistake was printing the words “post office” instead of “post paid” on the stamps. The mistake was discovered after 200 stamps were printed. It is believed that only 30 of these stamps still exist.

Though the storyline of Mauritius may at first suggest elements of The Piano Lesson, American Buffalo or The Price, Rebeck has other ideas and sensibilities. Like the rare stamps in question from the paradise isle of Mauritius, the fascination is in gazing into what at first may seem slight, obvious and functional.

As a Variety critic noted, “The passionate pastime of generations of obsessive nerds acquires new credibility in Mauritius, in which philately becomes the unlikely terrain for sly humor and suspenseful conflict. Theresa Rebeck’s capably constructed quasi-thriller is an entertaining account of two estranged sisters locking horns over their inheritance of a pair of rare stamps…the play is witty and absorbing.”

The New Yorker reviewer, Jon Lahr, said of Theresa Rebeck, “Her scenes have a crisp shape, her dialogue pops, her characters swagger through an array of showy emotion and she knows how to give a plot a cunning twist.”

This play, directed by Nancy Kandal and performed by some of San Miguel’s finest actors, is the second and final production of Players Workshop summer season. The first show, Psychopathia Sexualis, the comedy by John Patrick Shanley, was a huge success.

For this production, Players Workshop is offering “recession-busting” discount ticket prices for both Saturday night performances and for front row seats at all performances. Those seats are available for 100 pesos each. Tickets go on sale August 14 in the courtyard of the Biblioteca. They also are available in Teatro Santa Ana every day but Sunday.