What are People Saying About it?

Key Quotes:

"CATCO's 'Almost, Maine' fires up the romance"
Columbus Dispatch

"Should appeal to anyone who's fallen in or out of love"
Columbus Dispatch

"Utterly endearing"
Broadway.com

"CATCO smartens up your V-Day"
ColumbusMetromix.com

"Cariani's literal dissection of romance is actually pretty brilliant and often hilarious"
ColumbusMetromix.com

Read the full reviews:
The Columbus Dispatch review.

Metromix.com review.

Who's the Playwright?

John Cariani

John Cariani grew up in Presque Isle, Maine, attended Amherst, majored in history, and began an internship which led him to New York. He is a regular on Law and Order as Julian Beck, and has also appeared in Scotland, PA (2001) and Kissing Jessica Stein (2001). He wrote Almost, Maine because he was dissatisfied with the urban self-conscious plays of New York. His mother advised, "Well don't complain about that unless you're willing to do something about it!" Almost was first produced by the Cape Cod Theatre Project and Portland Stage Company (2004). It had a brief off-Broadway run (2006), and it has been produced throughout the world.

Play Notes

Snow, Love, Snow, Reflection, Snow, and More Snow: John Cariani's Almost, Maine

One of the characters in Almost, Maine admits that the town was almost a town, but the people never really got organized enough to complete the task. Not only does the story epitomize the sort of otherworldly quality of the play, it also reflects its author's favorite pastime--daydreaming. Cariani comes by his hobby honestly. He grew up in Presque Isle, Maine which boasts sub-zero temperatures and an average snowfall of two feet during the winter months. Presque Isle, which means almost an island, is also isolated: 500 miles North of Boston, 12 hours from New York. It houses a university whose motto boasts "North of Ordinary."

His hometown is the perfect model city for a play like Almost which chronicles the complexities of the human heart in the midst of the Northern Maine winter. Surrounded by the big, open sky, lots of farms, lots of snow, lots of stars, and more snow, the characters grapple with their lives and loves. The structure of the play suggests a sameness, like an Ohio winter: there are nine vignettes set in the same town, at the same time, and addressing the same theme, love. But as is clear from the opening of play, routines are undone. Something strange is happening.

For those familiar with Maine, such a turn of events is not surprising, given the fact that the state has produced one of the most prolific horror story writers in history. So, when things start getting creepy, it's tempting to look for a deranged serial killer or a vampiric moose. Cariani's strangeness, however, is more philosophical than Stephen King's terrors. His strangeness is like a literary art form called magic realism, a genre made famous by Latin American authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is a literary mode which establishes realism only to be invaded by fantastical physical or emotional elements.

Perhaps it is because Almost is so secluded that these remarkable events transpire. Given time and isolation, things happen, and we have time to reflect. Matters of the heart, head, and soul materialize in unusual ways. Many characters in this town realize, for example, that a single word, uttered in a single, frozen breath, in the time it takes a snowflake to melt, will change a life. It is quick. It is satisfying. It is painful. It is magical. And such matters are at the heart of drama, an art form that does not necessarily require a night in the snow, but nonetheless encourages us to remember the magic that is near, within, and part of us all the time--right there--see it?

Selected Production History:

• Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine, November, 2004 (world premiere)
• The Daryl Roth Theatre, NYC January - February 2006 (off- Broadway)
• Colony Theatre in Burbank, CA February - March 2008