Lovers And Other Strange Happenings In 'Almost, Maine'

Almost, Maine by John Cariani

Directed by Paul Daigneault 

Audra Avery, Set Design; Seth Bodie, Costume Design; Karen Perlow, Lighting Design; Dewey Dellay, Original Music and Sound Design; Kevin Robert Fitzpatrick, Production Stage Manager; Derrick A. Martin, Assistant Stage Manager 

CAST: Barlow Adamson, Kevin Kalinsky, Maureen Keiller, and Elaine Theodore 

Performances through March 10, 2007, in the Roberts Studio Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts    Box Office 617-933-8600 or www.speakeasystage.com 

If you're looking for a pleasant way to spend a winter's night, you could do a lot worse than to spend it with the cast of characters who reside in Almost, Maine, John Cariani's fictional stand-in for his hometown of Presque Isle.  While we haven't seen the likes of these folks on stage before, there is something just familiar enough about them to make us feel comfortable spending a couple of hours in their company. 

 

In an essay entitled "On Writing Almost, Maine," the playwright explains his mission to tell the stories of people like he grew up with because so many shows feature tales with urban sensibilities.  Although Boston theatregoers are cosmopolitan, we are also New Englanders who can find aspects of our experiences and ourselves in these eight charming vignettes.  Some are more realistic than others, as Cariani employs magical devices that beg for enormous suspension of disbelief, but still make us sigh contentedly with the outcome.  A little melancholy appears in the episodes that are more true-to-life and less contrived.  Go figure. 

 

Many of us go to the theatre for an escape from our ordinary lives and the journey to this north woods locale can provide it.  After all, the state's marketing slogan is Maine, The Way Life Should Be, and the focus in Almost is on love, whether to ward off the cold, boredom, or loneliness.  Love finds Cariani's characters in mundane places such as a bar or a laundry room, as well as in sublime settings like a snow-covered bench under a star-filled sky.  In "Her Heart," Glory (Elaine Theodore) travels to this remote outpost to see the northern lights, which she believes to be the spirit of her recently deceased husband en route to heaven.  Instead, she receives an unexpected "very warm Maine welcome" and help repairing the shards of her broken heart that she carries with her in a paper sack. 

 

The characters portrayed by Theodore are mostly a bit on the quirky side, while Maureen Keiller shows us the world-weary women of Almost, with one exception.  In the final episode "Seeing the Thing" Rhonda (Keiller) is the tough girl who meets and competes with men on their terms, but hasn't had much success with getting in touch with her softer side.  As she and Dave (Kevin Kalinsky) spar about their "relationship" and he confronts her with what everyone in town says about her, it is a treat to observe Rhonda's transformation.  When the inevitable is about to happen, watching these snowmobilers struggle to get out of their multiple layers of cold weather garb is a great piece of physical comedy. 

 

Kalinsky and Barlow Adamson introduce us to several "lovable eccentrics," each of whom is surprised by what happens to him in the vignettes.  In "Getting It Back" Adamson is convincing as the confused, spurned lover roused from sleep by his girlfriend of eleven years.  She tells him that they are through and she has "all the love you gave to me" in her car.  She proceeds to schlep seven large red sacks into his apartment and demands that he return all the love she gave to him.  When he produces only one little red pouch, it appears that she has been given her comeuppance, but this is one of the episodes that ends with a twist.(I won't spoil it.)  The two men also play well opposite each other in "They Fell" as quintessential outdoorsmen sharing some beers and self-deprecating tales of woe about dating. 

 

Cariani has a talent for creating conversational dialogue and down to earth characters, yet sprinkled with a mysterious other-worldliness that falls on them like snowflakes from the big Maine sky.  That is both a blessing and a curse.  The romantic in me feels all warm and fuzzy about the variety of ways these lovers find each other, but my cynic clicks my tongue, rolls my eyes, and says, "Yeah, right," -  maybe on Love Boat, but not in live theatre. 

Almost, Maine gets a boost from realistic costumes (can you say L.L. Bean?), simple sets that feature lots of snow and pine trees, evocative wind sounds, and warm lighting.  Director Paul Daigneault keeps things moving smoothly from one episode to the next by having the actors slide furnishings and carry props on and off the stage.  He has mixed the cast and the technicians into a chemistry as solid as the ice on Echo Pond. 

On balance, I was entertained by this play and found myself almost thinking fondly of winter in New England.  More importantly, I spent the afternoon watching lots of people falling in love and definitely found myself thinking fondly about that.

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