‘Almost, Maine’ @ Allen Contemporary Theatre
Photos by John Mead
—Jan Farrington
PLAYWRIGHT: John Cariani.
DIRECTORS: Nancy Cecco and Martin Mussey.
CAST MEMBERS: Tim Demsky, Sydney Dyer, Brett Femrite, Maxine Frauenheim, Ian Grygotis, Jamie Gutzler, Brian Hoffman, Johnny Jordan Jr., Noelle Saul, and Kathleen Vaught.
[Set designer, Chris Berthelot; Lighting designer, John Pinchot; Costume designer, Alison Kingwell.]
Why the list up front? It is a bit unusual. But Almost, Maine has so many stories—and such conprehensively fine directing and acting onstage—that I don’t want anyone to feel lost in the shuffle.
At Allen Contemporary Theatre, the woman in line with me during intermission for the show turned and caught my eye. We smiled.
“Some adorable stories up there, right?” I said to her. She nodded and said: “Cute, very cute….But maybe ‘adorable’ is better.”
Back in my seat for Act Two, I tacked on another word, ”unexpected.” Not just for the intriguing series of Odd Events onstage, but for the level of audience emotion—genuine and surprised responses, from bursts of laughter to silent sympathy that kept coming from one scene to the next.
Directed for max heart and energy by Nancy Cecco and Martin Mussey, the nimble and engaging cast of ten make the most—and then some—out of John Cariani’s charming and thoughtful script. The play is a series of very short stories, all happening in one place, and at the same time, on a mid-winter night in the remote spot known as Almost, Maine. “Not organized enough to be a town, too populated to be a wilderness,” is more or less how one character describes the place.
But if you look, there’s so much going on. A local fix-it guy meets a literally broken-hearted woman pitching a tent in his back yard; she’s come to see the Northern Lights, and say goodbye to someone….A young man who’s stopped feeling pain meets a flustered girl (in a laundry room) who can’t stop whacking him with an ironing board.…Two buddies make a contest out of their latest Bad Dates—but the winner is having an epiphany….And a couple trying (half-heartedly) to revive their marriage wait for the other shoe to drop.
Then there are the purely human mis-understandings that mess with our lives every day: Two people declare their love—but he says the wrong thing, and she takes a walk….And a “perfect” (but still unmarried) couple keep piles of traah bags full of the love they’ve given each other—but her pile looks so much bigger than his. What’s the story?
And there’s more. Playwright Cariani, an actor himself, has a great feel for lively dialogue and economical storytelling. We don’t get a lot of back story on these folks, but somehow he makes us feel we’ve known them a while. And the cast creates such disctinct characters we’re always a bit “aww” about leaving them behind for the next 10-minute playlet. The play is laced with a bit of magical realism—these events “may or may not” have happened, says the narrator—and each story is touched by an appearance, wavering and watery over our heads—of the Northern Lights that seem to reflect a vital moment in each narrative.
Almost, Maine is likely to leave you alternately thoughtful and delighted on the ride home. All I can say is, I wasn’t expecting something quite this memorable—but Allen Contemporary brought it.
WHEN: January 24-February 9, 2025
WHERE: 1210 W. Main St., Allen TX
WEB: allencontemporarytheatre.net
