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Dangerous Collecting
Written By: Virginia Talbot - Highlands Performing Arts Center | Issue: 2018/10 - October
“Mauritius” by Theresa Rebeck, an intriguing Broadway thriller about stamp collecting, is the next production of the Highlands Cashiers Players.
Who would have thought that stamp collecting could be dangerous? Or that the value of certain rare stamps could soar into thousands and, yes, millions of dollars? “Mauritius” is a thriller about attempts to get hold of a valuable stamp collection.
The collection inherited by two half sisters includes, among many valuable stamps, the crown jewels of philately – the one- and the two-penny stamps issued in 1847 by the small island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. These were the first stamps issued in any part of the British Empire, outside of Britain itself, and were printed with an error that has made them fantastically valuable.
The two estranged sisters, Mary and Jackie, disagree about what should be done with the stamp collection found among their deceased mother’s belongings. The younger sister Jackie (played by Jamie Thomas) wants to sell and get rich quick, while older sister Mary (Virginia Talbot) wants to keep the collection for sentimental reasons, as it belonged to her grandfather. The situation becomes dangerous when three seedy high-stake collectors get wind of the sisters’ treasure. Philip (Craig Eiser) and Dennis (Lance Trudel) are the first to learn of the stamps. They notify a third collector, Sterling (David Spivey), a thug willing to spend big bucks or do anything else necessary, including violence, to get hold of
the collection.
Director Michael Lanzilotta says he was attracted to “Mauritius” by its unusual subject matter and because it’s different from anything the players have done before. He explains that as the plot develops the show becomes less of a whodunit and more of a whose is it?
“Stamp fan or not,” he says, “there are themes in the play that will resonate with most anyone in the audience as the question becomes what’s more important – a family heirloom or cash in the bank?”
