Last Thursday, I drove to a theater, found my seat, waited for the lights to go down and experienced a play I knew nothing about. Call it the doldrums of August, but I hadn't done research of any kind. I didn't know what the play was about, who directed it, or who'd be appearing in it. I couldn't say whether it was comedy or drama. I didn't even know how to pronounce the title. What a treat! After the thousands of plays I've read and/or seen over the years, that hasn't happened in over a decade. I got to see a play the way some of you do all the time.

Mauritius is the story of a young woman's quest to sell a collection of rare stamps for an astronomical price, and how shady characters band together to keep that from happening. The young woman, Jackie, may not actually own these precious stamps; I'm no probate lawyer, but I rather think she doesn't. Either way, not just millions of dollars but Jackie's sense of self-worth - perhaps even her life - depend on the outcome of that sale. The naked desperation of all these characters makes for high comedy. Mauritius is a thriller, but it's also deeply funny.

I was heretofore unfamiliar with the playwright, Theresa Rebeck, but I learned from the curtain speech that she's sometimes described as "the female David Mamet." (The mind reels.) If that's meant to convey her familiarity with adult language, it's a fair charge. Otherwise, I found her script much more reminiscent of David August's Proof than Mamet's American Buffalo. If you caught Proof at Tacoma Little Theatre, you know it's about an emotionally fragile young woman at odds with her domineering older sister over an esoteric (some might say nerdy) item worth millions. In Mauritius, Alexandra Novotny plays the older sister, and Kelli Mohrbacher is terrifically good as Jackie.

Comic thrillers allow some license for over-the-top acting, and it seems some of the actors in this production took that license and ran with it. Brian Hatcher is especially emphatic as Sterling, an aggressive, not entirely legitimate businessman. You can almost see a pinkie ring, a la Joe Pesci, gleaming in his gesticulations. Dennis Rolly is in fine form as a downtrodden dealer. Novotny's Mary is a bit too broadly patrician for my taste, but it works. The cast tears into the smart material with avaricious delight.

And then there's Mohrbacher. For most of the play, she and Duane Deering adopt a more naturalistic style than the rest of the cast. Again, both styles play for an audience, even together. But I encourage patrons to look past the antics of the supporting cast to one truly outstanding lead performance. It's believable, multidimensional and loaded with what acting teachers refer to as "urgency." She needs that money. Without her complex desperation, the rest of the show wouldn't work. We have to root for her, and since she's probably not entitled to the cash, our empathy for her derives entirely from her obvious need.

High marks as always for Harlequin's technical polish, especially the rapid scene changes enabled by Linda Whitney's set design. I also want to commend director David Nail, a true renaissance man. He was great as the music video director in The Last Schwartz this spring, and I dug his lighting designs for Sixties Kicks! and Unexpected Tenderness. Turns out he can helm a show as well. I look forward to more of his work.

Mauritius

through Sept. 10, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
2 p.m., Sunday, $28-$35
Harlequin Productions
202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia
360.786.0151