Westerville South’s Troupe 513 put on a touching rendition of the black box staple Almost, Maine on March 2 -3. Written by John Cariani in 2004, the show follows eight different stories of the people in an “almost” town in the north of Maine.
Each story has its own take on different aspects of love such as falling out of love and falling in love, all while the northern lights dance over top of the town. In its dialogue, the play is very blunt and almost off-putting, giving the show a dream-like feel, and the visuals are all very simple, which adds to the surreal nature of the stories in the show.
On the technical side, the lights were the real star of the show. Though the show was not a black box, the lighting still gave that blackbox feeling by being very direct and bright, making the show a more personal experience.
The northern lights were also well done; subtle but always present, and a visual reminder of the beauty of all aspects of love. At the end, these lights take the main stage as the whole cast sits down to watch the aurora borealis as the clock turns to 9 p.m.
As for storywise, the stories “This Hurts,” “Where it Went,” and “Story of Hope” were the most impactful stories in my opinion. In “This Hurts,” Myles Gibson and Mandalyn Heckelman play the parts of Steven, and Marvalyn as they have a conversation about what pain is because Steven can’t feel pain and therefore, doesn’t understand it. Both actors gave somber yet impactful performances and were very memorable, even after the show.
“Where it Went” is one of the shorter stories; and though it doesn’t end particularly happily, it is a very grounded depiction of the estrangement that comes with long relationships sometimes.
As for “Story of Hope,” Heckelman plays a woman named Hope, who goes back to her high school boyfriend, Daniel, to rekindle her relationship, only to find him married. The boyfriend tells her to find a place for herself as she walks off stage alone.
The short story is a sad but unsurprising, hopeful one that is further amplified by the great performances of Charles Nickoli as Daniel and Heckelman.
Cryptic McCulloch gave one of my favorite performances of the entire show. They were featured in the stories “Getting it Back,” “Where it Went,” and “Seeing the Thing,” and everytime they took the stage they added a layer of emotion that amplified the message of every story they were in.
Some other honorable mentions are Myles Gibson in “This Hurts” and both the Prologue and Epilogue and Lucas Lusher in both “They Fell” and “Seeing the Thing.”
Like every good performance, there will have to be some issues. The sound was a bit rocky at some points but overall it was fine. The only critique I have for the actors is that during the story “Her Heart” I could not understand Daniel Connor at times but that could be chalked up to mic quality.
Overall, I believe the show was great. It had just the right amount of oddness and reality mixed into it to make an engaging and entertaining story.
