From 'sweet' to 'uncomfortable': 'Almost, Maine' delivers tales of love with mixed results

"Almost, Maine" is very much a romantic story for the early 2000s, and it shows. It makes sense when you put it into context that it was first staged just a year after "Love Actually" captured audiences’ hearts in 2003.

- By JANUAR JUNIOR AGUJA

"Almost, Maine" and "Love Actually" share similar DNA: both are anthologies of nine love stories set in winter. A major difference is location. Richard Curtis’ hit film takes place primarily in London, while playwright John Cariani’s story unfolds in a fictional town near the Canadian border.

The play has an added quirk: all of the stories happen within roughly 10 minutes, from 8:50 p.m. to about 9 p.m., with viewers watching each one unfold in sequence.

After being staged for more than two decades, including a Manila run in 2016, Little Boy Productions brought the play to Cebu this year, premiering it at the University of the Philippines Cebu Performing Arts Hall on July 26. Due to popular demand, its second staging is set for August 16 at the same venue.

The first run was directed by Rhea Fantonial Bautista, marking her brief return to the Cebuano theater scene after a decade in Seattle, Washington.

The cast features local talents: Athena Bautista, Yesha Suralta, Claire Codilla, Jay Chan II, Robert Palomo, Yalena Ysabel Achacoso, Nyegs Abayon, Nelson Judaya, Chloe Palang, John Sitchon, Jean Mari Saraña, Maxim Ilagan, Thomas Pua, Jolu Escaño, Paul Lambert David, and Tara Cabaero. Some actors, like Palomo, Palang, Ilagan, and Achacoso, play two characters.

- Synopsis of love -

The play opens with Pete and Ginette (Pua and Rhea Bautista), a couple at odds over the state of their relationship. This is the only story the play returns to, setting up a “will-they-won’t-they” arc.

Act One begins with “Her Heart,” the catalyst for the play’s themes and magical realism. Glory and East (Codilla and Escaño) meet in a chance encounter when Glory visits the titular town to see the northern lights, hoping to mend her “broken heart” — figuratively and literally.