Slavery is a subject that practically demands to be delineated in black and white, its moral and emotional parameters clear-cut and preordained. But playwright Carlyle Brown claims the freedom to follow his own compass on the issue, and the Mixed Blood Theatre once again lives up to its name with the miscegenation of political correctness and unspeakable truth that is "Pure Confidence."

The searing, tragicomic two-act drama is stirred by Simon Cato, a phenomenally adept and successful jockey, and slave, kept in the stables of a Kentucky horse farm just before the Civil War. The canniest of capitalists, Simon aims to parlay his ability to make white men rich into a bargain for liberty, first for himself and then his beloved Caroline. "I am no slave because I know what I am worth — down to the penny," he declares, and, indeed, compels his owner, Colonel Wiley "The Fox" Johnson, to negotiate terms of his release.

There are some explosive ingredients here. There is genuine affection, and even love of a sort, between slave and slaveowner — not only with Simon and Wiley, but between Caroline and Wiley’s wife Mattie. There is boisterous black humor in every sense of the words during the first act, set in 1861, highlighted by a breathtaking, beautifully calibrated scene where Simon enacts a horse race between freedom and slavery, replete with whippings down the stretch. The second act, which takes place after the war in 1877 up in Saratoga, N.Y., is more somber, trading piquant for poignant, and swagger for pride.

The acting is worthy of the material, led by Gavin Lawrence as Simon, a role he has previously played to much acclaim elsewhere in the country (both he and Brown are Minneapolitans, but "Pure Confidence" was originally commissioned and developed by Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival). Wiley and Mattie are played by Chris Mulkey and Karen Landry, recognizable faces from, other things, the 1980s film, "Patti Rocks." And Regina Marie Williams is luminous as Caroline.

"The only time you are truly free is when you have a chance to choose," says Brown, through Simon Cato. "Because after that you are a slave to something."

Choose "Pure Confidence."

Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis. Through Feb. 1. ($13-$30) Tickets: online or 612-338-6131.