BRLT’s ‘Almost, Maine’ offbeat, worth seeing
Quirky. Tender. Offbeat. Funny. Cute. “Almost, Maine,” now playing at Baton Rouge Little Theater, isn’t really a single play, and it can’t really be described with a single adjective.
Worth seeing? Oh, yeah.
There aren’t many plays like this one. Because of how director Keith Dixon chose to cast it, “Almost, Maine” bears a passing resemblance to the Tuna, Texas, comedies (“Greater Tuna,” “A Tuna Christmas,” “Red, White and Tuna”). Both are set in fictional small communities, and the Tuna series has two actors portray a wide variety of memorable characters.
“Almost, Maine,” however, doesn’t depend on flogging regional stereotypes to within an inch of their lives to achieve its humor. But Brigette Burhoe, Tyler Grezaffi, Jeffrey Johnson and Courtney McKay Murphy do a commendable job portraying 18 different characters in nine separate stories.
All of these take place in a rural, northern Maine community that never quite organized itself into anything officially recognized in maps, hence the name of the play. All of the action takes place at 9 on the same Friday night in the middle of winter.
Each vignette is brief enough that more than the most rudimentary description gives away what it tries to tell. The scenes explore themes like the awkwardness of expressing love, rejection and heartbreak, male bonding, selfishness and relationships that drift apart. Clever dialogue by playwright John Cariani gives a lighthearted touch to even the most painful of these situations. There is a lot of symbolism — an actual broken heart, bags representing love given and an amusing, tension-breaking depiction of “the other shoe dropping.”
But writing alone does not carry BRLT’s production. The cast does a solid job of bringing these characters — and some of them are real characters — to life.
Each has moments to shine. Grezaffi does a lot with facial expressions as Pete, the shy man who awkwardly deals with a woman drawing close to him, and as Randy, whose time with a buddy takes an unexpected twist. Murphy shines in her whimsical role of returning her boyfriend’s love and as a woman looking for the man whose wedding proposal she never answered. Burhoe is hilarious as Rhonda, the grown-up tomboy who receives her first kiss, and Johnson is solid throughout.
The play lasts just under two hours, and it’s time pleasurably spent.