Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Welcome to the northern most part of New England where the show “Almost, Maine” by John Cariani is set in. The show premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine back in 2004 but is The Community Players third show of their 98th season. It is a series of nine vignettes exploring love as well as the joys and perils of romance. Cariani employs elements of magical realism as he explores the mysteries of the human heart. Almost, Maine is a town so far north that it’s almost in Canada and it almost doesn’t exist because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it is known as Almost. On a Friday night in the middle of winter, residents of a small, mythical town in northern Maine are falling in and out of love at an alarming rate. Director Valerie Remillard assembles 19 cast members to portray these roles to entertain the audience.
Valerie thinks up some clever bits and physical comedy for her cast to perform. Each of the nine segments have at least two characters in them. The title of the vignettes are the Prologue, “Her Heart”, “Sad and Glad”, “This Hurts”, “Getting It Back”, “They Fell”, “Where It Went”, “Story of Hope” and “Seeing the Thing.” Pete and Ginette are the only recurring characters in the show and are in the start and ending scenes. They show they will go the distance to make their love last. The northern lights are by C. Richard Koster and Adam Ramsey, the sound design by Valerie and the unit set by Brian Mulvey.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot of each scene which will ruin it for the audience. There are some funny one liners including “My parents moved south to Vermont” which is one of them. Some of the crazy shenanigans include the female hitchhiker who camps out in the backyard of a stranger to mend a broken heart. This is at first a comic scene which turns dramatic with Megan Ruggiero and Ian Hudgins play these roles. Later on in the show we find two sledding pals who are the patient sweetheart and the tomboy who fights him when they do a striptease that has to be seen to be believed played excellently by Stevie Smith and Sarah Quintiliani. Another touching scene is of a woman, named Hope, who finally commits to her childhood love, getting a surprise in an emotion packed scene. Hope is wonderfully played by Carol Reavey while Duane Langley beautifully plays the childhood love in this scene. Other predicaments include a scene where a girl hits a man with an ironing board because he doesn’t feel pain, teaching him to feel for the first time in his life. Amy Lee Bullock and Alex Hatzberger do a great job as this young couple.
Richard Griffin plays a nervous workman who runs into his ex-girlfriend played by Katie Clancy and the tattoo on his arm that leads him to another girl. Megan Begin plays the waitress in this scene who gives it a surprising twist. An energetic scene in Act 2 occurs with C. Richard Koster as a weary married man who goes skating with his wife played by Karen Kessler while waiting for the other shoe to drop with both of them doing an excellent job. Matthew Moos plays a seemingly clueless boyfriend while Heather Vieira plays his strong willed girlfriend who finally realize that they love each other. This high intensity scene closes Act 1.
One of the funniest scenes occurs at the start of Act 2 when two gal buddies who discover they are falling all over the place in love after their two boyfriends dump them. The two buddies are excellently played by Caitlin Robert and Mindy Britto. The clever banter about their break ups and the dancing description are hilarious The prologue and epilogue are one of the girl, Rachel Letourneau who walks around the world to be with the man she loves played by Peter Swan who makes a snowball on stage to describe how they can get closer together. The northern light blink every time something wonderful happens. So for a fun filled night to enjoy a new comedy, be sure to catch “Almost, Maine” at The Community Players.
ALMOST, MAINE (22 February to 3 March)
The Community Players, Jenks Auditorium, Division Street, Pawtucket, RI
1(401)726-6860 or www.thecommunityplayers.org
