Almost, Maine at the Granite Theatre

Almost, Maine at the Granite Theatre opens Friday, September 11, for a two-week run of John Cariani’s romantic comedy about love found, lost and occasionally turned upside down beneath the northern lights.

The Granite Theatre production runs September 11–20 in downtown Westerly, with 7:30 p.m. performances on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Tickets are $30–$35.

Rather than following one couple through a conventional love story, Almost, Maine tells nine interconnected stories about the residents of a tiny fictional community in northern Maine. During the course of one cold Friday night, relationships begin, end, stumble and take some wonderfully strange turns.

Welcome to Almost

Almost isn’t technically a town.

In Cariani’s fictional geography, it’s an unorganized community so far north in Maine that it’s almost in Canada. On a clear winter night, with the aurora borealis overhead, its residents experience a series of encounters that revolve around falling in love, falling out of it or discovering that what they thought they understood about another person wasn’t quite right.

The structure is closer to a collection of short stories performed on stage than a traditional beginning-to-end narrative.

Most of the scenes involve just two characters, with different residents moving in and out of focus as the evening progresses. The stories stand on their own, but the shared place, time and themes gradually turn them into a portrait of one small community.

Cariani also gives the play a touch of magical realism.

Emotions sometimes become physical things. Characters carry the consequences of love in ways that couldn’t happen in the real world, yet the feelings behind those moments remain recognizable. That lets Almost, Maine move quickly between comedy, absurdity, heartbreak and tenderness without becoming a conventional romantic comedy.

A Play That Almost Disappeared

The story behind Almost, Maine is nearly as unlikely as some of the stories inside it.

John Cariani developed the play at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2002. It received its world premiere at Portland Stage Company in Maine in 2004, where it broke box-office records.

By then, Cariani was already familiar to Broadway audiences as an actor. He earned a Tony Award nomination for playing Motel the tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof and had appeared on television in Law & Order.

Almost, Maine reached New York next, opening Off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre in January 2006.

That production lasted only about a month.

Ordinarily, that might have been the end of the story. Instead, after the play was published and became available to other theaters, something unexpected happened.

Small professional theaters began producing it. Then community theaters picked it up. Colleges and high schools followed.

And they kept doing it.

From Short Off-Broadway Run to Thousands of Productions

Today, Almost, Maine has become one of the most frequently produced contemporary American plays.

The play’s official site reports that more than 6,000 theater companies in the United States have staged it, along with more than 100 international companies. It has also repeatedly ranked among the most-produced plays in North American high schools.

Part of the appeal is built into Cariani’s unusual structure.

With largely self-contained two-person scenes, directors can distribute substantial material among an ensemble rather than building an entire production around one or two leading roles. Each vignette gives its actors a complete little story to develop.

Audiences get something different from that structure, too. One scene may land as broad comedy while the next turns unexpectedly bittersweet. Not every relationship works out, and the title itself becomes something of a running idea.

Things in Almost are frequently close.

Almost a town. Almost Canada. Almost together. Almost over someone. Almost happy.

But not quite.

John Cariani Wrote About the Maine He Knew

The fictional setting wasn’t chosen at random.

Cariani grew up in Presque Isle in Aroostook County, the enormous and sparsely populated region at the northern end of Maine. He has said those years shaped his affection for the landscape, language and people that eventually found their way into Almost, Maine.

The setting is intentionally remote. The cold matters. The darkness matters. So does the northern sky.

Against that isolation, the small interactions between people become bigger. A conversation on a bench, an unexpected visitor at the door or an encounter between two neighbors can become the most important thing happening for miles.

Cariani eventually returned to the world he created in another form. In 2022, he adapted Almost, Maine into a novel, expanding the interconnected stories and characters beyond what audiences see on stage.

But the theatrical version remains the work that made Almost into a place thousands of actors and audiences have visited.

Inside Westerly’s Historic Granite Theatre

The setting for this production has its own story.

Granite Theatre occupies a restored Greek Revival building at 1 Granite Street in downtown Westerly. Long before actors performed there, the building was a church.

The congregation that became the Broad Street Christian Church was organized in 1843, and the building was completed in 1849. Its prominent classical façade and columns remain part of one of downtown Westerly’s distinctive historic structures.

The building eventually found a second life as a performance space, reopening as the Granite Theatre in 2000.

Today, Renaissance City Theatre operates the Granite as a nonprofit theater, presenting plays, musicals, family productions, educational programs and special events throughout the year.

It’s also an intimate room. With roughly 140 seats, the audience is close to the performers rather than watching from the distance of a large regional theater. That should suit a play built around small conversations and two-person encounters particularly well.

Opening Night Begins a Seven-Performance Run

Almost, Maine opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 11.

A second evening performance follows Saturday, September 12, before the first Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. September 13.

The production returns the following Thursday and continues through Sunday, September 20, for seven performances in all:

• Friday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, September 12 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, September 13 at 2 p.m.
• Thursday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, September 20 at 2 p.m.

Tickets range from $30 to $35.

Accessibility at the Granite

Because the Granite occupies a historic 19th-century building, accessibility comes with some limitations.

The theater performance space itself is wheelchair accessible, but the Granite notes that its lobby and restrooms are not fully accessible.

A small number of accessible parking spaces are available behind the building and need to be reserved. The theater recommends that anyone who needs accessible parking or has mobility concerns call ahead rather than relying on availability when arriving for a performance.

Details

Event: Almost, Maine
Playwright: John Cariani
Opening Night: Friday, September 11, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Run: September 11–20, 2026
Evening Performances: 7:30 p.m.
Sunday Matinees: 2 p.m.
Number of Performances: Seven
Genre: Romantic comedy
Venue: Granite Theatre
Address: 1 Granite Street, Westerly, RI 02891
Tickets: $30–$35
Box Office: 401-596-2341
Accessibility: Theater space is wheelchair accessible; lobby and restrooms are not fully accessible
Accessible Parking: Limited spaces are available and should be reserved in advance

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.