“Sweet.” “Funny.” “Charming.” These are the words you’re likely to hear buzzing around the audience during intermission at “Almost, Maine,” Riverside Theatre’s final production of its second-stage season in the intimate Waxlax space.
Playwright John Cariani’s collection of vignettes, all centering on aspects of romantic love, and all taking place around the same 10 minutes on a wintry night in the fictional town of Almost in upstate Maine, has been delighting audiences for more than two decades.
In addition to its many professional productions around the country, the play has become one of the most popular staples staged by college, community and high school groups, largely because its 19 characters in eight short playlets give many student performers a chance to hone their craft.
At Riverside, though, as was the case Off-Broadway, all 19 denizens of “Almost” are portrayed by a quartet of enormously talented and engaging actors, each sculpting five distinctive characters from Cariani’s text.
Under Allen Cornell’s fluid direction, this foursome takes us through a range of scenarios that remind us that not every love story has a happy ending, not every romance is destined to succeed.
But humans are wired to keep trying and, here anyway, there’s another chance waiting around the bend with at least a glimmer of hope.
The vignettes are very cleverly written, often beginning with a quirky plot element to pique our interest – the guy who cannot feel physical pain, for instance, or the woman who carries the shattered pieces of her heart in a little cloth pouch. Cariani then unspools startling story details to fill in the blanks.
He doles out unlikely plot elements until we realize that anything is possible in “Almost,” where reality is slightly skewed and magic can happen. As these unexpected details are sketched in, small revelations yield big laughs.
At a recent matinee, the audience laughed pretty much throughout the whole performance, and there were an amusing number of sympathetic ‘awws’ at the poignant moments that sometimes leave a character lovelorn. It’s hard to imagine how the quartet of actors bringing this all to life could be improved.
Matt DaSilva has a naturally comic sensibility that shines through his characterizations, even though he never pushes the comedy and plays each role in complete earnest. Consider his woebegone HVAC tech and rug shampooer; drinking Buds and regretting his misspelled ‘villain’ tattoo as his former girlfriend’s bachelorette party celebrates in the next room.
Lauren Weinberg is also terrific in all her scenes, shining brightly as a woman who returns to Almost, having left years before without ever answering her beau’s marriage proposal, now hoping to rekindle that relationship. She’s rueful and heartbreaking when she finds that her hoped for reconciliation cannot be.
Rachael Scarr earns lots of laughs as a tomboyish snowmobiler, surprised to find herself desired by the guy she’s palled around with as platonic friends for years. Uncomfortably and clumsily broaching the idea of a more physical relationship, Scarr deftly departs from the more “girly” roles she’s played up to this point.
Completing the quartet, lanky Derek Emerson Powell seems styled to resemble Adam Driver in the first vignette. He then goes on to show a wide range and a knack for physical comedy, especially in the scene where he and his beer-drinking, country-boy bro discover they’re moving beyond the bonds of friendship.
Hats off to designers Aleigha Cheng (wigs) and Anna Hillbery (costumes), whose hair and clothes help the actors with a variety of looks and attitudes to flesh out their galleries of characters. A big part of the fun is seeing what permutations of hairstyles and winterwear they’ll turn up in next.
One funny bit late in Act Two plays off the layers and layers of clothing needed to ward off the chill in northern Maine.
Emily Luongo’s minimalist scenic design effectively suggests each location with just a few set pieces, which are changed with choreographed precision by aptly costumed stagehands Paul Dunnagan and Steve Yeomanson, who the audience enjoyed acknowledging during the curtain call.
Genny Wynn’s lighting design nicely evokes a New England night sky, although its aurora borealis effect was apparently misbehaving at the matinee following opening night. It made a brief appearance in the first scene before checking out for the rest of the performance, leaving Wynn’s twinkling upstage starfield to dim and brighten seemingly at will.
As more a series of situations than a cohesive play, with no single narrative through-line and characters only occasionally mentioned from one scene to another, audiences of a certain age might be reminded of a long ago TV sitcom, “Love, American Style,” which similarly brought together various stories under the thematic umbrella of romance.
“Almost, Maine” runs through April 12 at the Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Dr., Vero Beach Tickets are available online at RiversideTheatre.com or by calling the box office at 772-231-6990.
Photos provided
