SKITS FROM WHERE VERMONT IS SOUTH
ALMOST, MAINE
Directed by
Christopher Schario; written by John Cariani
With: John Patrick Driscoll, Tarah Flanagan, David Mason, and Janet Mitchko
At The Public Theatre in Lewiston, Maine
From October 19 to October 28, 2007
Reviewed by Laurie
Meunier Graves
Back in the old
days, say, in the 1960s and 1970s, there were shows such as Rowan &
Martin’s Laugh-in and The Carol Burnett Show that featured skits
and tomfoolery to divert audiences from the grimmer realities of
life—Vietnam, racism, and sexism, to name a few. Although grim realities are
a constant, nowadays it seems that the golden age of skits have pretty much
come to an end. However John Cariani’s Almost, Maine proves that no
format is ever completely dead. Whether you think this is a good idea or not
depends on how much you enjoyed the aforementioned golden age of skits.
Almost, Maine
is set in northern Maine, in an unorganized territory, where nobody has
taken the initiative to form a town. In the Public Theatre’s production,
John Patrick Driscoll, Tarah Flanagan, David Mason, and Janet Mitchko
portray a variety of characters in a series of skits where love is the
subject. Snow banks, snowmobiles, and the Northern Lights provide a Maine
touch, and as other reviewers have noted, liberal doses of magical realism
and visual puns give the play a whimsical feeling reminiscent of a certain
fictional town in Alaska. Unfortunately, the skit format of Almost, Maine
prevents audiences from connecting with any of the characters the way they
did with Northern Exposure.
The skits include Glory, a woman from away whose heart is
literally broken—she carries it in a paper bag. Glory is on a quest to see
the Northern Lights, and whom does she conveniently meet? A repairman who is
sure he can fix her heart. Another revolves around Jimmy, who comes across
his ex-girlfriend in a bar on the night of her bachelorette party. In his
despair over the break-up of the relationship, he has had a word,
unfortunately misspelled, tattooed on his arm. As it turns out, this
misspelled word just happens to be the name of the attractive server in the
bar. In yet another, a young man who literally can’t feel pain is unfrozen,
so to speak, by a kiss from an unhappy woman. Well, you get the idea. While
there is a dash of melancholy from time to time, there is no Bergman-like
angst here. The one bit of daring in these otherwise slight stories concerns
two male buddies who come to realize that they are, in fact, in love with
each other. In this case, the casualness of the skit contrasts very nicely
with a subject that can only be called touchy.
By and large, the actors play their parts very broadly,
which certainly emphasizes the goofiness of the skits. The exception is
David Mason, who brings a light touch to his various roles, and at times,
with his shuffling reserve, he really does seem like a Mainer.
Almost Maine is a light confection that
nevertheless manages to amuse the audience. For older viewers, it is a trip
down a skit-filled memory lane. There are worse ways to spend a rainy Friday
fall night in Maine.
