“Almost, Maine” charms McKinney Theatre
(Adrianna Mendoza / Lariat)
Mckinney Theater hosted the love-story filled show “Almost, Maine” on Friday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m.
The show was surprisingly pleasant as it veered off into a sequence of events involving quirky characters in love-driven situations. The title “Almost, Maine” refers to the town in which these events occur which was said to not be any particular city, but almost one.
The show was comprised of two acts each running four scenes long. The writing clearly distinguished the play as a whimsical and cutesy account of several romantic lives. The show was overall well received by the audience.
“The show was better than I thought it would be. The actors really helped bring the characters to life in a non-annoying way,” said Bianca Mendoza, 22, psychology.
The play by John Cariani is set during the winter making it perfect for this time of year. Although plays such as this one tend to become tedious and predictable, the characters were made lovable by an exceptional cast.
Anastasia Christensen and Syd Ames were easily the standouts of the night, giving their similarly quirky and fast-talking characters lives of their own.
Anastasia’s character Glory encounters a man while she persistently waits for the northern lights. Her nervous and sad demeanor gives Glory an empathetic edge to the audience. Seeing that she carries around the remnants of her broken heart in her bag, the young man successfully repairs it for her, queuing the beginning of a new love for her.
Ms. Ames takes on the role of a young woman by the name of Hope, who returns to her hometown in order to accept a marriage proposal given to her before her start in college. When Hope returns, she finds a seemingly different looking man living in her ex-lover’s humble abode.
After her heartfelt confession of her past choices to this stranger, Hope realizes that the man she is talking to is indeed her ex-lover. Her beam of excitement at this discovery is soon tampered with a heartbreaking disappointment when she hears a female voice calling in her husband. As her ex-lover returns inside to his new wife, Hope sweetly and sadly whispers the word “yes” regarding the out-of-date proposal.
Bianca elaborates on her stand-out choices saying, “The characters, like if you thought about it, were really all the same person: quirky, timid, whatever. Those two girls, though, did it in a way where people found them adorable and believable and not very annoying, which I think is hard to do.”
Another standout throughout the show had to be presented in the prologue. Pete, played by Jackson Spencer, hit the ground running with his comedic timing. Casting Spencer in the beginning set the tone for the show and it left the audience laughing for more.
The rest of the cast, it should be noted, did a fantastic job as well. Not one character proved to be dull and every act kept the audiences attention, invoking more than a couple of laughs each time.