By Aaron Sorkin. Directed by Matthew Bissett. An Ensemble Theatre Company production at the Jericho Arts Centre on Friday, July 19. Continues in repertory until August 9

You don’t come across a talented new director every day, which is why Matthew Bissett’s work on The Farnsworth Invention is such cause for celebration.

In an excellent first step, Bissett has chosen solid material to work with. Aaron Sorkin’s 2007 script imagines a debate between Philo T. Farnsworth, the Idaho farm boy who came up with the basic principle for television when he was 12, and David Sarnoff, the media mogul who, some say, stole the invention from him years later. They narrate each other’s stories, and, in a Brechtian approach that keeps the audience alert, haggle about the truth and admit to making scenes up.

The play gives such a compelling sense of the thrill and audacity of discovery that it actually makes you care about electrons and cathode-ray tubes. And the dialectic between corporate and scientific interests engages because it’s complex. Near the beginning, Sarnoff says: “By the way, the end does justify the means. That’s what means are for.” But he’s also the guy who tries to keep broadcasting free from the corrupting influence of advertising, and he’s the one who grasps television’s cultural potential. The script doesn’t go deep enough into its relationships and ideas to be profound, but it is always absorbingly interesting.

Bissett has directed a lot for local opera companies, including Burnaby Lyric Opera and North Shore Light Opera, and you can see that experience in the authority with which he moves this 12-member cast around the stage. At one point, Sarnoff manically plots corporate strategy and a trail of executives and secretaries follows his swirling path in a worried conga line. Elsewhere, Bissett employs marching formations and simultaneous gestures. Overall, there’s a lovely sense of rhythm in the piece as its tensions expand, contract, and hit their comic marks.

Under Bissett, the cast in this Ensemble Theatre Company production does impressive work. Shaven-headed Yurij Kis makes a suavely profane Sarnoff, and red-haired Michael Smith captures all of Farnsworth’s farm-boy enthusiasm, without letting you forget that the guy is also dauntingly smart. Rebecca Walters is persuasive as Farnsworth’s wife, Pem; there’s a lovely moment in which she nuzzles her head under her husband’s arm until he embraces her. She’s like a dog demanding attention, confident that she will get it. Bissett has clearly encouraged his actors, many of whom play multiple roles, to make their characterizations distinct: Kazz Leskard (the young Sarnoff and others) is particularly adept at it.

Visually, the production is appealingly simple. All of the performers remain on-stage throughout, changing costumes and stepping into the action when needed. Bissett’s pared-back but stylish reading keeps our attention on the script, which is where it should be.