Mound Builders, The

After days, weeks and even months of dusting away the dirt concealing the interiors of the mysterious mounds built along and near the amazing confluence of the Wabash, Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers — finding mostly small fragments of old pots — imagine the excitement of the excavation team in finally discovering the golden death mask of a great god/priest king of the mound builders. But the morning after, in Lanford Wilson’s metaphor-rich The Mound Builders, now revived at off-Broadway’s Signature Theater, all the wonderful finds have been swept away, deliberately destroyed, with even the actual site obliterated by a bulldozer.

To discover why this happened and its effects on the family-related team, you need to see the astonishing production — staged by Jo Bonney and designed by Neil Patel, Theresa Squire and Rui Rita. This fraught drama is not just about digging up the past; it is really more about the betrayals people who should know better inflict on those they should love, or at least respect.

The entire ensemble, now interacting in the Romulus Linney Theater at the Signature, is outstanding, but Will Rogers is unforgettable as the wild and horny Chad Jasker, who owns the land on which the mounds were found and mistakenly expects to make a fortune when the site is covered over by an interstate and a rising lake, which he thinks will become a tourist trap. Unfortunately for his dreams of riches, the site has been declared protected, and the interstate — still to be built — has been relocated.

The photographer wife of the archaeologist in charge has been having a grief fling with Jasker, but she photographed all the golden treasures the night before the site was destroyed. However, the morning after, she rips all the film out of her camera. So have the mound builders vanished without a trace? Hard to say. Any ancient culture that we still know something about — even if its ancient cities have vanished — still survives in memory and tradition. Perhaps this production might make spectators wonder whether we will also vanish without a trace?