The play’s the thing Good Theater proves better than its name BY MEGAN GRUMBLING
	A Man of No Importance Book by Terrence McNally; music by Stephen Faherty; lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Directed by Brian P. Allen. Produced by Good Theater at the St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center, through March 13. Call (207) 885-5883.
	Backstage Come see a comic caper set in 1960s Mod London and written by two local high-school playwrights, and enter to win paraphernalia from the Empire Falls film shoot. Freeport High presents the original one-act Birdies, Boots and Bonnets March 3 through 5 at the Freeport Performance Arts Center, and again on March 20 as part of the 1st Annual Student Playwright Mini-Festival. See a girl try to break a pogo-jumping record to win a date with Roger Daltrey, and — if fortune smiles — acquire a script signed by Ed Harris and Aidan Quinn, or a Empire Falls High Football megaphone. Call (207) 865-4671.

Making comedy of community theater is a long, entertaining, and affectionate tradition. From Shakespeare’s Peter Quince to Christopher Guest’s Corky St. Clair, this convention performs the good work of lifting up the world’s ordinary amateurs for homage, via a little good-natured ribbing. In that great vein comes the of the musical A Man of No Importance, based on the 1994 Albert Finney movie of the same name, which is the triumphant current production of the Good Theater, on stage now at the St. Lawrence.

The humble fellow of the title is Alfie Byrne (the superb Timothy Bate), a bus conductor in 1964 Dublin and the delightfully sanguine director of the St. Imelda’s Players, who rehearse and perform in their local church. A Man chronicles the foibles in the evolution of their latest show, Oscar Wilde’s Salome, which is clinched in the moment when the perfect Salome, new-girl-in-town Adele (Kelly Caulfield) steps onto Alfie’s bus. In another play, Adele’s arrival would be the makings of light romance for Alfie. But this sensitive devotee of Oscar Wilde — a bachelor who lives with his sister Lily (Amy Roche) — is secretly less interested in the attentions of his lovely Salome than those of his strapping young mate Robbie (Graham Allen), the bus driver whom he hopes to convince to play John the Baptist. And when the Church shuts down their production, for obvious reasons, Alfie faces a two-tiered struggle: for acceptance of his play, and to find the man he truly is.

The young Good Theater has quickly become a winsome, exuberant, and unpretentious addition to Portland’s best professional companies. Their production of this award-winning musical is so fluid, well-paced, and seamlessly charming that it’s easy to forget the one proscenium as its players bustle within their own in St. Imelda’s. Director Brian Allen has assembled a singularly excellent group of actors — impressive not only for their individual talents but for their remarkable, hand-in-glove coherence as a cast — and he moves them about the space of the St. Lawrence with an unerring eye. As Robbie takes Alfie on a tour of the Dublin streets, fine blocking and ensemble work create an unstrained sense of movement. Director Allen also uses tableaux to great effect in getting at the idiosyncratic personalities peculiar to community thespians, particularly during "Going Up," the number that formally introduces the St. Imelda’s Players, one ebullient amateur at a time.

Allen’s direction of his cast is a case study of one of the great ironies of directing: Its most accomplished practitioners usually leave the least evidence of their work, so like a self-propelled entity their play appears to be. Allen’s work is so good that we forget, until the lights come back up, that there is such a thing as a director.

Of course, Allen also has the good fortune to have some formidable talents on board. Timothy Bate’s Alfie is simply superlative; his humble enthusiasm is infectious and the trauma of his inner troubles delicately wrought. As Robbie, the object of Alfie’s affections, Graham Allen has a sinewy candor, and it’s a joy to watch him flex his unaffected, working-class masculinity. The contrast in carriage between him and Alfie is striking, a finely crafted reinforcement of the psychological differences between them: Robbie’s careless sensuality to Alfie’s quaint, carefully suited primness. Kelly Caulfield’s Adele is radiant with her stunning voice and endearing balancing act between ingénue and more worldly girl, and Amy Roche as Alfie’s sister Lily brings wit, compassion, and a great range to a meaty comic role.

Many in the cast double between portraying their distinct actor characters and ensemble-type roles on the street and in the pub (Lois Stutevant Blake mixes it up from the matron playing Herod’s wife to buxom barmaid Kitty Farrely, while Bill Ellis swerves from Salome crew member Peter to the insidious pub-rat Breton Beret) and this work, too, is rich and convincing. Musically, the production is sublime; Good Theater has succeeded in making their largest production to date (with a cast of 16) a nimble and harmonious success.

Performed on Janet Montgomery’s gorgeous set of St. Imelda’s — and featuring some restored stained-glass windows from the St. Lawrence itself — A Man of No Importance affirms the Good Theater’s place in Portland, just as its story affirms the good of the theater itself.

Megan Grumbling can be reached at mgrumbling@hotmail.com