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David Mamet's plays must be among the most frequently performed of modern American theater pieces.

His gritty, cynical, disjointed dialogue and timeless plots - the dangers of dating, death, doubt, desperation, dishonor among thieves - strike a chord with directors and actors and hit a nerve with audiences.

But Mamet's 1976 play "The Water Engine" is not done as often as his "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," "American Buffalo" or "Glengarry Glen Ross."

"Those other plays have become the Mamet identifiers," said Paul Ford, who is directing a University of New Mexico theater department production of "Water Engine." "Those are the plays you look for. 'Water Engine' kind of gets buried."

Ford, a UNM theater teacher, said one reason "Water Engine" gets passed over might be the difficulties it presents.

Mamet wrote it as a radio play in the mid-'70s. And even though he adapted it to the stage, it often feels like something you should be listening to instead of watching.

"When you read it, it's like half radio script and half stage script," Ford said. "There are voice-overs that carry the action forward. It has that sort of narrative quality where you sort of close your eyes and let your imagination carry you along."

Ford's cast of 15 consists entirely of UNM students. The play is one act that lasts about 70 minutes, but it has lots of scenes that are constantly changing and that are held together by a plot thread involving a chain letter.

Ford is drawn to the play's story.

It's set at the 1934 Chicago Century of Progress World Fair. Inventor Charlie Lang is there with his marvelous creation, an engine that operates on distilled water.

That, of course, would change everything. It'd be like what would happen if we could use the sun and wind instead of oil and coal as sources of energy.

In other words, it'd be next to impossible because of the opposition of big business.

"The protagonist is absorbed, taken into the system and crushed," Ford said. "But due to his ingenuity, he figures out a way to send his idea into the future. The play has a heartbeat of optimism."

"Water Engine" seems as if it could be a response to today's high fuel prices or to the fuel shortages of the 1970s when Mamet wrote it.

Ford is not so sure. He likes to think there is more to "Water Engine" than that. He points out that the play is subtitled "An American Fable."

"There is this underlying American theme of the individual vs. the collective, one man's dreams up against the corporations," he said.

He likes that element of Gary Cooper in "High Noon." But he also sees a film noir quality in "Water Engine." He said that's unique in Mamet plays and owes something to its setting in the 1930s when noir movies were popular.

" 'American Buffalo' has dark shadows in it," Ford said, "but not in that Sydney Greenstreet noir-thriller way you see in 'Water Engine.' "

Ford directed "Water Engine" at Albuquerque's Vortex Theater about 20 years ago.

"But I can't remember any of the decisions I made on that production," he said. "One reason I came back to it was that I wanted to do an ensemble show that would be good for the students here, something I could invite everybody into the challenge of figuring out."

Ford and his cast know the key to deciphering a Mamet play is the language.

"What you do see in 'Water Engine' that is also in Mamet's other works is the oblique language, the disconnected dialogue, the ideas that are dropped and picked up four minutes later," he said.

Ford said the toughest thing about directing or acting Mamet, is keeping the play itself difficult.

"The challenge of a Mamet play is not to allow it to simplify itself," he said. "The play can operate on several different levels. If you allow it to be simple, it's easier to do but flat.

"But if you dig into and build on the fragmented dialogue, complex characters with complex problems begin to emerge."