Romantic relationships begin and end in Lake City Playhouse's amusing production of "Almost, Maine" by John Cariani.

The play consists of a collection of eight vignettes that each take place at the same time on one wintry night in Maine. Cariani's script is marked by light wit, sweet lessons, and clever plot devices. In one scene titled "Getting It Back," a woman, played by Liberty Rose Harris, arrives at her boyfriend's house demanding that he return all the love she had given him, literally.

Harris' desperation is a humorous contrast to the calm demeanor of her lover, played by Andy Leferink, and the story leads to a touching end.

In "Her Heart," Cory Jasmin is goofy and adorable as a woman who camps in a stranger's yard to view the Northern Lights. Wearing a colorful stocking cap, her comic facial expression captures the audience's attention from the moment the stage lights rise.

Another standout is Aaron Baldwin, who gives a memorable performance as a man with an extremely high pain tolerance. His almost obsessive way of writing down all the things in life that can hurt a person evokes laughter.

The cast, which also includes Troy Anast, Jordan Loe, Janelle Frisque, and Casey Shellman, show skill in their portrayal of several different characters apiece. Leferink and Shellman could make their respective roles more distinct, however. Shellman had the best line of the night: "I'm glad you found me."

Anne Mitchell has directed her actors to play the humor in a subtle fashion, as the script warrants, rather than hamming it up, garnering genuine laughs.

The understated portrayals give way to raucous abandon in the final piece, titled "Seeing the Thing," in which a man, played by Shellman, tries to introduce the joys of physical love to his longtime friend, a rather masculine woman, played by Frisque. Sometimes love is delayed by snow boots and layers of winter clothing.

Carilani's dialogue, while simplistic at times, has moments of ingenuity, as in an exchange filled with funny repetition between two former lovers who run into each other at the bar. You know, those first few awkward seconds: "Hey! / Hey! / Hey!! / Hey!! / Heyyyy!!! ... That's great. /Yeah. / That's great. / Yeah," and so on.

In April, a shorter version of "Almost, Maine" will travel to Richland, Wash., where it will compete with other community theater productions for a spot at the national American Association of Community Theatre's festival.

The set has been designed with traveling in mind and can be erected and disassembled in six minutes, says George Green, Lake City Playhouse's executive artistic director. It consists of a two-sided wall with a door in the middle that swings both ways. It sits atop a turntable, which, in turn, is mounted on a platform.

While "Almost, Maine" is the kind of play that only needs a simple set, it could use more wintry atmosphere for the theater's home production.

"Cute" was the adjective members of the audience on opening night used to describe what it had seen. But beneath the snowflake-y charm lies the message that we are only as close to one another as the circumference of the earth.

"Almost, Maine" plays through March 6.

Sandra Hosking, a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area college instructor and freelance journalist, is a longtime member of the theater community and playwright whose works have been performed across the U.S. and internationally.