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Rarely - very rarely - do we see a play with such beautifully and delicately handled substance as Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel, which opened at Pure Theatre in the Cigar Factory last weekend. A script with this remarkable kind of duality seldom comes along. The play poses as a charming portrait of a rumpled, quirky librarian on a mission. Yet a truly dizzyingly heartfelt, philosophical, and theological journey awaits audiences in Pure's black box theatre.

The narrator of the play, who significantly remains anonymous, is an elderly Dutch man, a former librarian who desperately wants to relate his fantastical story. He has only a short time to tell his tale, which takes so many turns it leaves him flustered and leaves you pitying him. Part of his job, we learn, entailed re-shelving the books left in the night depository; one morning he came in to find a book returned - 113 years overdue. A stickler for library rules, he took it upon himself to find out who was responsible for such tardiness and to procure a hefty fine from the guilty party, even if it was the descendant of the original culprit. We learn of his rivalry with another librarian in the reference department, and how they competed for the Head of Acquisitions position. We learn of his various eccentricities, and we get a hint at a story of lost love in his past.

Underlying all of this is the narrator's investigation into the late book (a travel guide), which has led him to this point, retelling his story to the audience.

The investigation has taken him - and now us - on a trip through not only several continents but several schools of thought as well. We're treated to side trips into religion, existentialism, futility, identity, and the ever-nagging question "why am I here?" And commingling with those weighty topics is the one which may seem inconsequential by comparison but is in truth just as massively important to the heart: that of loneliness, the desire to find someone to relate to and talk to, the desire to be known, the desire to be missed and to make an impact on someone.

He's collected at least 77 clues, items he's labeled as "pieces of evidence," beginning with the book's checkout card, signed only "A." The trail he follows, beginning with that single clue, eventually leads him to believe he's hot on the tail of the legendary Wandering Jew.

This play is like a roller coaster. You begin by riding gently uphill, pleased with the view and having a charming time. Then suddenly you're plunged into a head-spinning whirlwind. When you disembark you're left blathering about how great it was and how you want to go again even though it left you shaking and scared.

Stephen White delivers one of the best performances Charleston audiences have seen in quite a while. This is what acting should be. Delicate, with a slight squint of an eyelid, he conveys volumes about his beliefs, fascinations, jealousies, obsessions, and loneliness. He never loses the audience members, from the moment he enters the performance space. He never leaves his character, he never searches for a movement to do, he never leaves his accent, and he never appears to be merely delivering lines he memorized. He has a great role to play with - this narrator is charming, funny, eloquent, and on a beautiful adventure.

Oftentimes, one-handers can become stagnant, but Sharon Graci's direction keeps the show energized. She has White darting out into the audience in moments of excitement, running to perform demonstrations and explanations of the information he's sharing, and always actually communicating with the audience.

Berger's created a riveting, humorous, stylistic work. Underneath the Lintel is a complex play under the guise of a simple story. It's an intriguing mystery that overcomes a man who, drawn out from his sheltered and narrow world, himself becomes the very wanderer he's seeking. It's a case of the follower overtaking the followed. A lifelong atheist who finds himself challenged, the narrator asks the kinds of questions no one wants to ask themselves: "Would I recognize a miracle if I saw one?", "If I snuffed it tomorrow, would anyone notice?"

Underneath the Lintel is a mind-bending, heart-bursting, beautiful production handled gracefully by Pure Theatre. It will leave you recognizingthe power of theatre.