The highs and lows of love: Susan Stanley (Marci) and Hamish Clark (Phil). Photo credit: Harry Grindrod
Play: Almost, Maine
Theatre: Park Theatre
Playwright: John Cariani
Directors: Simon Evans
Review by Esha Chaman
Premiering for the first time in the UK, American playwright John Cariani’s acclaimed Almost, Maine is a heart-warming wintery treat featuring nine vignettes about ordinary people struck by the most desired yet elusive force that exists – love.
Set in Almost, a snowy fictional town in Northern Maine, resident couples grapple with the highs and lows of love from the heady spark of a new romance to bitter-sweet endings.
The sparsely populated town, shrouded in the chilly darkness of winter, serves as the backdrop to each story which unfolds at exactly the same time (9pm) on the same night beneath a canopy of stars.
Kickstarting the first story, Ginette (Lucy Eaton) fills the intimate theatre with a cosy ambience during her heartfelt declaration of love for another while on a romantic star-gazing date.
Susan Stanley and Hamish Clark give a suspenseful performance as bickering married couple Marci and Phil who, amid the frustration of trying to locate Marci’s missing shoe, realise that they are unhappily married.
An unrequited reunion is unveiled when a stylishly dressed Hope (adorably played by Melanie Heslop) appears at the door of her love Daniel (Ian Keir Attard) – whom she doesn’t recognise – to accept his marriage proposal, which turns out to be a missed opportunity.
Not all of the stories end bleakly. Comedy is present when Dave (an endearing Patrick Walshe McBride) startles his good friend Rhonda (Eaton) with a gift of a “stare-at-it-until-you-see-the-thing” painting as a heavy hint to show her that he likes her.
And despite returning bundles of white sacks that represent “huge bags full of love” to the bewildered Lendall (Clark), following their break-up, Gayle (Eaton) receives a surprise wedding proposal.
The balanced interplay between the pain and joy of love is what makes Cariani’s script both impressive and believable. It dodges the danger-zone of sentimentality.
His dialogue is refreshingly playful with the odd romantic cliché, which surfaces when macho best friends Randy (Walshe McBride) and Chad (Keir Attard) find themselves (literally) weak in the knees for each other as they uncontrollably crumble to the ground after Chad confesses his love for Randy.
Meanwhile the lovelorn Glory (Heslop) cradles the paper bag containing her shattered heart that “broke into nineteen pieces” after her husband left her.
Each story is sprinkled with a touch of magic realism and ends with what Cariani calls “a magic moment” such as Marci’s missing shoe mysteriously falling from the sky, or the spectacular display of the Northern Lights in Glory’s tale.
The simple sparseness of the set is given character with the odd wintery symbols, including a cluster of pine trees dotted in the background, while the six actors do justice to the charming vignettes.
Almost, Maine is advertised as a show “for romantics”, but its realistic mixture of hope and despair in the quest for love make the stories immediately identifiable, and has the potential to defrost the most sceptical of hearts.
Although not all nine of the stories are memorable, Cariani’s play is a mesmerising watch and shouldn’t be missed.
Almost, Maine is at Park Theatre until 17 January 2015.