Pure Theatre's production of "Spinning into Butter" opened Friday night with a superb cast of seasoned actors, displaying the best in ensemble acting.

Rebecca Gilman's melodrama is a play difficult to produce, because of its subject matter, which is racism. Lightening this exploration of the race issue with intentionally attractive and sympathetic characters, plus well-crafted humor, Gilman traces the rise and fall of a group of college officials and students in an imaginary Vermont college. These bureaucrats, when faced with challenges, personal and institutional involving racial matters, find out they do not have all the answers, any more than their students do.

The central character, Dean Sarah Daniels, dominates the action. Sharon Graci digs into the psyche of this well-intentioned, if naive, young woman with splendid believability, leaving no stone unturned.

Patrick Sharbaugh creates the ideal foil to her strong character in the person of a former lover Ross Collins. Libby Campbell-Turner plays a very nervous and up-tight dean who is the complete mid-level administrator.

Hal Truesdale, as Dean Strauss, brilliantly fashions the perfect upper-crust, self-important college know-it-all. Eric Christian Doucette cleverly reveals a young student at war with the college institution and himself.

In the mold of David Mamet's plays, Gilman's play is not as concise and edgy as Mamet's are. She gets long-winded at times, trying to cover as much territory as possible.

She has an ultimately unbalanced argument. There is too much information about the white point of view and too little about the black.

This production, under director Franklin Ashley, is highly recommended for its production values. The play continues at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, through Oct. 1, at the Cigar Factory