Gold Coast Review – Almost, Maine: quirky theatrical triumph

Review by Douglas Kennedy

Almost, Maine

By John Cariani

Javeenbah Theatre Company, Nerang

Directed by Kaela Gray and Jake Goodall with a team of associate directors

Season ends November 30. Bookings: info@javeenbah.org.au

Duration 120 minutes with interval

Features 10 short plays

Production Photography: Buttery Smooth Images.

John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is a sometimes charming, occasionally bitter-sweet, series of vignettes on the broad subject of relationships and love.

The two-handed skits – which are often cited as being nine but add up to 10 with a prologue – come with a broad-brush stroke of absurdist comedy.

The Javeenbah Theatre Company’s final main house production for 2024, which boasts a cast of nearly 20 and a crew tipping it over the two-dozen mark, comes to the Gold Coast with impressive runs on the board.

This play, which premiered in Portland, Maine, back in 2004 and broke box office records, has had 100 professional performances as well as 5000 community outings.

It has been seen in community theatres, high schools and universities throughout America, as well as being translated into more than a dozen languages.

Now Javeenbah has produced its own version of this quirky theatrical triumph, and the result is overall quite satisfying.

It takes a little time and patience to get into the idiom as absurdist comedy, unlike mainstream humour, doesn’t have universal appeal.

However, the love stories do hit their targets as various characters deal with attraction, rejection, loss and disillusionment.

The prologue opens the show with two mature lovers – played by Trevor Love and Thea Gomez – trying to get close, but accidentally pushing each other away.

Their dilemma closes the show with a feeling of satisfaction on a high note but in-between we meet a series of struggling couples looking for their goal.

The Almost, Maine is a reference to the town’s almost status being so far north on the American map it’s almost in Canada.

Naturally, Almost, Maine is a mythical town whose succession of lovers and would-be lovers cope with a magical realism encasing real hearts and minds.

Directors Kaela Gray and Jake Goodall run a tight ship with a cast of actors with varying talents and experiences.

Overall, however, the collection of stories is largely heartfelt, often funny and occasionally laugh out loud.

This reviewer was particularly drawn to This Hurts, where the character sums up her feelings by what hurts and what doesn’t, and They Fell where lovers talk about falling in love while falling down.

The This Hurts actors are Mikayla Maree Melo and Lily Moore-Carter, while They Fell performers are Ekaterina (Kate) Milkova and Cassia Rosenstraus-Krojs.

The set is a simple one and the bright and white lighting design by Colin Crow and Jake Goodall suitably effective.

This reviewer is less than impressed with Javeenbah’s new on-line programs, but that probably reflects my time of life and constant struggle with computer technology.