In "Di Experienza," Matthew Ivan Bennett's dramatic portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, three figures from his paintings -- Judas Iscariot in "The Last Supper;" La Gioconda, better known as the Mona Lisa; and the aristocratic Isabella d'Este -- debate with him about his life as an artist and the significance of his art. Judas accuses him of self-doubt and assails him for the inordinate amount of time he took to complete work, if he finished it at all. Mona Lisa defends her creator, praising his curiosity, "the spur of genius," his personal generosity and his achievements. Isabella is poised between them: she acknowledges Leonardo's brilliance but chastises him for self-indulgence and not fulfilling his potential.

Like the work of the man it celebrates, Bennett's play seems incomplete. He wants to unearth the man behind the myth that Leonardo has become, but ironically, the more he tries, the deeper the myth gets. The play evolves into an intellectual and philosophical discussion. At one point, Leonard says, "The future is built by knowledge, not feelings." That's one of the problems here: the play overflows with interesting ideas, and we learn a lot about Leonardo and the time when he lived, but there is little access to his emotional life, his underlying humanity. Interestingly, his creations emerge as vibrant and passionate, while he remains elusive and enigmatic.

What Bennett does give us is a strong sense of Leonardo's inventiveness and versatility. One reason he didn't finish things is that he became bored and intrigued by something new. His illegitimacy, homosexuality, and artistic talent made him an outsider in society. He was fascinated by both depravity and divinity. Experience, the play's title, was his guiding principle. Through it, he hoped to discover who he was.

Plan-B Theatre Company's world-premiere production is impeccably professional. Michael Brusasco infuses Leonardo with passion and purpose; his boundless energy and intense curiosity keep him always in motion. Kirt Bateman, Tracie Merrill, and Teresa Sanderson adeptly portray his three creations as well as other characters in his life. Bateman's Judas is abrasive and envenomed, and his turn as Michelangelo is delightfully prissy, smug, and arrogant. Sanderson offsets her haughty, bossy Isabella against a range of male characters, giving each a distinct voice and body language so we immediately see them as old or young, fat or thin. Merrill's Mona Lisa is sweet and spiritual but genuine and persistent in her desire to understand Leonardo and uncover her identity.

Randy Rasmussen's set -- a slightly raked circular stone disk, backed by three large scrims with the image of the older Leonardo -- is one of his best. When the scrims are illuminated by Jesse Portillo's subtle, shifting lighting, drawings and snatches of writing surface behind Leonardo's features. Jann Haworth's costumes are an eclectic mix of Renaissance and modern. Cheryl Cluff's sound design combines music with the hammering and scraping of Leonardo at work. Jerry Rapier's focused direction orchestrates the dramatic moments.

With both "Block 8" and "Di Esperienza," Bennett's writing has been confined by commissions. It will be interesting to see what this eloquent, local playwright can do when he has more freedom.