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  • Mauritius Mauritius Follows A Woman Named Jackie Who Has Recently Come Into Possession

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    Shane Kopischke
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    Theresa Rebeck's play Mauritius follows a woman named Jackie who has come into possession of a rare stamp collection. The play explores the moral dilemmas that arise as Jackie and her half-sister Mary both claim ownership of the stamps and try to profit from their sale. Though seemingly a simple story about stamps, Rebeck uses compelling characters to draw the audience into an increasingly complex plot where no one is purely good or bad. By the end of the play, Rebeck challenges the audience's perceptions as the characters make questionable choices out of justified self-interest.

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    Mauritius Report

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    Theresa Rebeck's play Mauritius follows a woman named Jackie who has come into possession of a rare stamp collection. The play explores the moral dilemmas that arise as Jackie and her half-sister Mary both claim ownership of the stamps and try to profit from their sale. Though seemingly a simple story about stamps, Rebeck uses compelling characters to draw the audience into an increasingly complex plot where no one is purely good or bad. By the end of the play, Rebeck challenges the audience's perceptions as the characters make questionable choices out of justified self-interest.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    58 views1 page

    Mauritius Mauritius Follows A Woman Named Jackie Who Has Recently Come Into Possession

    Uploaded by

    Shane Kopischke
    Theresa Rebeck's play Mauritius follows a woman named Jackie who has come into possession of a rare stamp collection. The play explores the moral dilemmas that arise as Jackie and her half-sister Mary both claim ownership of the stamps and try to profit from their sale. Though seemingly a simple story about stamps, Rebeck uses compelling characters to draw the audience into an increasingly complex plot where no one is purely good or bad. By the end of the play, Rebeck challenges the audience's perceptions as the characters make questionable choices out of justified self-interest.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 1

    Shane Kopischke

    Roy Acuff Seminar


    Freddie Ashley
    09/30/19
    Mauritius
    Theresa Rebeck
    Mauritius follows a woman named Jackie who has recently come into possession
    of a collection of stamps. The play begins with her trying to get them appraised, but she
    is not willing to pay the fee that Philip, the philatelist, is asking for to look at them. In that
    shop she meets Dennis, who looks over her stamps and realizes there are two of the
    rarest stamps in the world in her collection. We then learn that Jackie actually sort of
    stole the stamps from her half-sister, Mary. Jackie begins trying to sell the stamps as
    Mary is intent on keeping them or donating them to a museum. In the climactic end of
    the play, a fight breaks out as Jackie is trying to illegally sell the stamps for cash and
    Philip lets everyone know that the stamps could be fake.
    The play is fairly “normal” in structure, it is how Rebeck uses that structure that is
    interesting. When the play begins, it really does seem like it is just going to be about
    stamps. But because of the way Rebeck wrote the characters, the play takes a very
    Miller-esque turn into insanity. Using a “normal” structure for this play works because I
    feel that a more outside-of-the-box approach to the structure would take away from how
    great the story being told is.
    In Mauritius, Rebeck asks the audience to reevaluate where their moral loyalties
    lie. In the beginning, it feels like there is not really an antagonist, though a case could be
    made for Mary. However, as things unravel, it is clear that every character in the play
    has bad or at least misplaced intentions and none of them are really trying to do the
    “right thing.” The theme of the play is really just “questionable but valid bad choices”. It
    works because the characters are written well and all of them feel justified for what they
    are doing.
    Rebeck pulled off what she was going for with Mauritius elegantly. This play
    reads like a mix between an American classic and a very contemporary piece. By the
    second scene, I was already completely reeled in because I could not help but wonder if
    it was going to be about anything other than stamps. The fact that Rebeck did that, and
    really did just write a play about stamps, at least on the surface, is remarkable. The
    pacing is excellent and the choices all feel genuine, as insane as some of them are.
    It might be hard to get an audience to see a show about stamps, but once they’re
    in their seats they should be gripped through the whole play. While audiences could get
    turned off because of the subject matter initially, Rebeck masterfully ropes them back in
    with sharp writing that feels like an homage to classic American theatre, where nothing
    really happens until EVERYTHING happens.

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