By Eli Golden
“Almost Maine” is a theater production originally written by John Cariani made up of multiple 10-minute stories all happening on the same night in a small town, loosely connected, featuring whimsical elements but primarily based in reality. It’s got a healthy blend of comedy, romance, and drama, creating something both fun to watch and gripping.
At its core, however, “Almost Maine” is about love. Each segment explores a different relationship, and in a differing ways. The segments range from a mournful story of a missed chance at love, to a story of a girl walking all the way around the globe for her boyfriend. It’s mainly a comedy, but there are many deeper themes present that ask and answer hard questions about relationships and how they can change.
The northern lights also play a large role in this play, a particularly fitting image especially since opening night took place the same night the northern lights were visible from downtown Hagerstown.
Despite comedic overtones, Almost Maine has complex themes underneath every segment. For example, a section featuring Steve (played by Lukas Ahrens), a character who can’t feel pain, who keeps a book of what can hurt you and what to be afraid of. It’s overall comedic as Marvalyn (played by Layla Bragunier) discovers his lack of pain. Underneath this comedy though, the real story is that Pete was emotionally scarred and started closing himself off to everything, not allowing himself to feel “pain” (physical or emotional). The theater students do a great job navigating scenes like this, with an impressive range of emotion between the more comedic scenes and the more serious ones.
The production began with a brief introduction from David Ryan, the director, in which he talked about the play and his appreciation for the students who put in their all to bring the show together, those on and off stage.
“It’s theater at its best- when everyone comes together to make it happen.”-David Ryan. That quote from his brief speech couldn’t be more true. The theater students worked very hard in putting this show together and it paid off.
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