Mysterious Mansion

American playwright Don Nigro’s play “The Mansion of Mystery,” in a wonderful translation by Victor Weber, is prefaced by an epigraph from the 17th-century English poet Ben Jonson: “Consider how dearly one must pay to be caught in a lie; and perhaps these thoughts will inspire a greater love of truth.” The play “The Mansion of Mystery” is a classic detective story in which five charming ladies, all somehow involved in the death of a servant and the master of the house, try their best to mislead a police inspector, leaving him no chance of discovering the true story. Crime drama seamlessly blends with dark humor, eroticism, sarcasm, and philosophical reflection on the meaning of the truth we all long to know, which can make no one happy. Perhaps that’s why the unexpected ending brings a feeling of pleasant satisfaction.