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Almost Maine Play Analysis

The play Almost, Maine premiered in 2004 at the Portland Stage Company in Maine before moving to an Off-Broadway theater. Playwright John Cariani drew from his experience growing up in a small town in Maine to tell stories of isolated rural communities. Each of the play's vignettes explores the beauty and challenges of love through the lives of the town's residents as they navigate relationships against a backdrop of winter in Almost, Maine.

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432 views3 pages

Almost Maine Play Analysis

The play Almost, Maine premiered in 2004 at the Portland Stage Company in Maine before moving to an Off-Broadway theater. Playwright John Cariani drew from his experience growing up in a small town in Maine to tell stories of isolated rural communities. Each of the play's vignettes explores the beauty and challenges of love through the lives of the town's residents as they navigate relationships against a backdrop of winter in Almost, Maine.

Uploaded by

Santana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Santana Ramos

Almost, Maine

John Cariani

Marci

Almost, Maine Play Analysis

I. THE PLAY

A. Premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine (not Oregon) in 2004.

It then moved to the Daryl Roth Theatre Off-Broadway on January 12, 2006, and closed

one month later.

B. John Cariani says of his experience with the show, Those of us on the other side--the

creative team--we kind of deteriorated during tech and previewsUntil, of course, that

magic moment of everything coming together happened, and then we all rose kind of like

a bunch of phoenixes from the ashes Cariani talked about how he struggled with

writing and revising the script, and what an incredible and challenging experience it was

for him to create a show from the ground up. One critic says of the play, characters

arent around long enough to make strong impressions, also mentioning that the scenes

seem drawn out as if they were overextended acting exercises. A reviewer in 2014 said

that while the show is not profound, its charm is real.

II. THE PLAYWRIGHT

A. Born July 23, 1969 in Brockton, Massachusetts. Grew up in Presque Isle, Maine.

(State where the play takes place!) Participated in music and theatre in high school, and

attended college in Massachusetts. Cariani stated in an interview that he wanted to tell


stories of people from small towns like the once he grew up in. Small , isolated, and

beautiful.

B. Cariani is more well-known for his acting, and he has acted on Broadway, Off-

Broadway, and in film & television. In terms of playwriting, he is best known for this

show, Almost, Maine. However, he also wrote the plays cul-de-sac, about suburban

married couples who are attempting to rekindle their flame. Last Gas is about a man who

stops at a convenience store to get gas, and is given the opportunity to, again. rekindle an

old romance, but then has to choose between his new love and old. LOVE/SICK is often

compares to Almost, Maine with its similar themes and style. One reviewer says that the

play seems to depict those couples who had fallen in love in the latter show, only neck

deep in the muck that follows.

III. WORLD OF THE PLAY

A. Given Circumstances

1. The small (fictional) town of Almost, Maine.

2. Takes place in present day, on a Friday night in January. It is definitely winter.

3. I imagine that everyone is middle class, and I have an inkling that they may be

upper middle class. The town is small and the work is local. Everyone is

comfortable, for the most part. They may have to work hard, but

they get food on the table (and expensive hockey equipment).

4. During the time in which the play is set, George W. Bush was president. In

2002, when the play began to come together, independent Angus King was

the governor of Maine. He tended to lean toward the right, diverting from the
political ideas of the republican governor before him. At the time, same-sex

marriage was banned.

5. As previously mentioned, same-sex marriage was prohibited, which may have

alienated members of the LGBT community, something that we see through the

tension between Chad/Randy and Deena/Shelly.

IV. IDEA OF THE PLAY

A. The title Almost, Maine encompasses the small town that Cariani created to

mimic the town he remembers growing up in. Because of this, it gives us

an idea of the kind of people and relationships we are going to seethose

which resemble the ones in rural Maine in the late

1990s/early 2000s. It also gives us an idea about the kind of atmosphere and

environment we will see. A snowy winterpossibly gloomy. But also very

beautiful, especially when accompanied by the northern lights.

B. The playwright hopes to evoke a feeling of closeness within the community.

All of these characters are connected one way or another, because theyve

lived in such close vicinity all their lives (or for a large portion of their lives). I

really got a sense of the sadness and the beauty inherent in a cold, snowy

winter. It was the perfect setting for the delicate issues involved in love that

are represented throughout the play.

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