Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Almost, Maine at Scripps Ranch Theatre

It's not a good sign when you're watching a play and it reminds you of another play, or playwright, more adept at similar material. John Cariani's Almost, Maine recalls Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon, the TV show Northern Exposure, and the brain-twisters of David Ives. Each casts an imaginatively surreal veneer over once familiar territory.

Almost, Maine tries as well. All nine sketches take place at the same time: 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night in Almost, a small (actually nonexistent) town in northern Maine, 200 miles from the ocean.

Each sketch is a variation on love's ways and wiles. And each makes an impossible leap, some fanciful, some just cute.

The first, "Her Heart," sets the tone. Glory's out in the freezing cold to see the Northern Lights. She holds a crumpled paper bag. Inside, we learn, are the 19 pieces of her broken heart. Wes did the hammering, a while back. She's standing on the lawn of a man named Easton. He repairs things.

One sketch takes the cake. Mick Jagger sang (can't recall where) "I lost a lot of love over you." He implies that love is finite; people only have so much. In "Getting It Back," love is visible. When she breaks up with her man, a woman demands he return all the love she gave him. To seal the deal, she lugs in all he gave her, in big red bag after big red bag, culminating in quite a pile. When he re-enters with hers, the sketch grows into a funny and thoughtful "what if."

"Getting It Back" sets a standard the others don't reach, most often because they never develop beyond the impossible twist.

In "They Fell," two men fall in love, literally. The first few are a hoot, the next five or so, not. In " Where It Went," the "other shoe" falls, literally, and the sketch flattens out after that. As does "This Hurts," in which a man who feels no pain gets slap-sticked with an ironing board.

Cariani's gimmick: most of his characters are innocent to the point of preadolescence: adult fifth-graders. A simple kiss can make their month. Only once does a couple decide there might be more to this love thing. The sketch is dull, but the decision comes as a triumph over Almost, Maine's doggedly cute naivete.

When I saw the show, several members in the Scripps Ranch audience stood and applauded after. That was for the four-person cast, most likely. Combined they play about 20 characters, and savvy director Robert May put them through their paces. DeNae Steele, Samantha Ginn, Benjamin Cole, and Joshua Jones (the latter two new faces) demonstrated versatility and crisp timing throughout.

Steve Murdock's sound design does impressive work with noises near and far, the latter suggesting vast stretches of emptiness. And Jessica John Gercke's costumes define character within narrow parameters, since each must bundle against the cold.


Scripps Ranch Theat6re, 10455 Pomerado Road, playing through April 22.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Scott Peters aide gets free travel and hotel from Big Pharma

Todd Gloria sucks up money from Big Billboards

It's not a good sign when you're watching a play and it reminds you of another play, or playwright, more adept at similar material. John Cariani's Almost, Maine recalls Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon, the TV show Northern Exposure, and the brain-twisters of David Ives. Each casts an imaginatively surreal veneer over once familiar territory.

Almost, Maine tries as well. All nine sketches take place at the same time: 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night in Almost, a small (actually nonexistent) town in northern Maine, 200 miles from the ocean.

Each sketch is a variation on love's ways and wiles. And each makes an impossible leap, some fanciful, some just cute.

The first, "Her Heart," sets the tone. Glory's out in the freezing cold to see the Northern Lights. She holds a crumpled paper bag. Inside, we learn, are the 19 pieces of her broken heart. Wes did the hammering, a while back. She's standing on the lawn of a man named Easton. He repairs things.

One sketch takes the cake. Mick Jagger sang (can't recall where) "I lost a lot of love over you." He implies that love is finite; people only have so much. In "Getting It Back," love is visible. When she breaks up with her man, a woman demands he return all the love she gave him. To seal the deal, she lugs in all he gave her, in big red bag after big red bag, culminating in quite a pile. When he re-enters with hers, the sketch grows into a funny and thoughtful "what if."

"Getting It Back" sets a standard the others don't reach, most often because they never develop beyond the impossible twist.

In "They Fell," two men fall in love, literally. The first few are a hoot, the next five or so, not. In " Where It Went," the "other shoe" falls, literally, and the sketch flattens out after that. As does "This Hurts," in which a man who feels no pain gets slap-sticked with an ironing board.

Cariani's gimmick: most of his characters are innocent to the point of preadolescence: adult fifth-graders. A simple kiss can make their month. Only once does a couple decide there might be more to this love thing. The sketch is dull, but the decision comes as a triumph over Almost, Maine's doggedly cute naivete.

When I saw the show, several members in the Scripps Ranch audience stood and applauded after. That was for the four-person cast, most likely. Combined they play about 20 characters, and savvy director Robert May put them through their paces. DeNae Steele, Samantha Ginn, Benjamin Cole, and Joshua Jones (the latter two new faces) demonstrated versatility and crisp timing throughout.

Steve Murdock's sound design does impressive work with noises near and far, the latter suggesting vast stretches of emptiness. And Jessica John Gercke's costumes define character within narrow parameters, since each must bundle against the cold.


Scripps Ranch Theat6re, 10455 Pomerado Road, playing through April 22.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

When the wires show

Scripps Ranch Theatre's Tribute does well by the material's standard.
Next Article

SD Fringe Festival: Stiff Love

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader