John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is set in a fictional town so named because it’s so far north that it’s almost in Canada. It’s distant from the urban chatter of Boston or Montreal, but that physical distance also suggests the emotional distance that the play’s characters have to bridge.

“Distance is a big issue in the play,” said Elizabeth Docel, who plays two parts in the production. “The town is distant from everywhere and the play is about the distance between people.”

The Ann Arbor Civic Theater is presenting Cariani’s play March 9-12 at the Arthur Miller Theatre. It’s a play that has won wide support at regional and school theaters for its mix of comedy, drama, and a little magic realism.

“When I first read the play, it was so different from what I usually do,” said director Kat Walsh. “I usually do Shakespeare and works centering on social justice, and I found this play simple, sweet, and quirky.”

As she looked deeper into the play she also found a running theme.

“As I became more engaged in this work I found that there were these characters who would pursue acts of bravery that characters in other works I directed would not,” she said. “Because to allow yourself to be fully known by someone else, to be vulnerable for a time, to end a relationship when it’s not working that is extremely hard the very thing that most people run away from, so I found something beautiful in the simplicity, but it’s a call to action to all of us to be able to live authentically in that way.”

Almost, Maine is structured in an unusual way. Rather than a running story through two or three acts, it’s a series of nine vignettes, all set on a winter’s day in north Maine. The action takes place on front porches, in living rooms, and in the chilly outdoors.

“All the characters know each other in some way and it’s about community as much as it’s about individual relationships, about how people choose to engage with each other,” Walsh said. “They learn from each other and they learn about themselves through their relationship with others.”

Walsh and the actors are working with a play in which each vignette has its own dramatic arc in the space of 10 minutes rather than over two or three hours.

“It’s been a wonderful stretch as director and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by actors and designers who are really committed to telling these people’s stories and that’s what it’s all about, telling these stories and do them justice,” Walsh said.

Cariani insists that theater groups restrain themselves from trying to create Maine types and instead emphasize the gently dramatized universal themes.

In his playwright’s notes, he writes, “The people of Almost, Maine, are not simpletons. They are not hicks or rednecks. They are not quaint, quirky eccentrics. They don’t wear funny clothes and funny hats. They don’t have funny Maine accents. They are not ‘Down Easters.’ They are not fishermen of lobstermen. They don’t wear galoshes and rain hats. They don’t say ‘Ayuh.’”

He emphasizes that the people of Almost, Maine are ordinary people. They work hard, have a sense of dignity and they’re smart without the cynicism associated with city life.

The play is usually cast with eight actors, but Walsh chose not to double cast parts with two exceptions, to provide for more actors.

“It’s exciting to see this group of people come together to explore how to tell these stories,” Walsh said.

Docel plays two characters, the fragile but likable Gayle in the “Getting It Back” scene and the tougher Rhonda in the “Seeing the Thing” scene.

Docel said there is a challenge playing two such different parts and working with two different actors to give the right tone and interpretation to the play.

“I love it, that intense aspect of it, like we’re running a marathon,” she said.

In “Getting It Back,” Gayle is concerned that her long relationship with Lendall is not moving forward as she would like.

Chris Grimm plays Lendall.

“Lendall is kind of straightforward,” Grimm said. “He tends to take things a day at a time with a singular focus. He’s been with a longtime girlfriend for 11 years, read into that what you like. But he’s an honorable being in the end.

“I feel it’s been a little harder to create a character with depth having just this snapshot. We’re trying to pack a lot meaning into a couple minutes.”

Matt Miller plays Dave opposite Docel in the “Seeing the Thing” scene.

“Dave is interesting,” he said. “His whole thing is small town. He drives a snowmobile, drinks beer, he’s into sports. He’s more open in some ways and doesn’t fit into the stereotype view of small-town people.”

He agrees that the short scenes are a challenge.

“It’s harder to come up with those layers of meaning in minutes,” he said. “In a longer play you study what links this to that. Here it is compressed in a short period. You’re intended to experience the characters in short bursts and need to keep going back over it, amping up what works.”

Grimm said he wasn’t sure at first about the play, which some critics find a little “corny” though it has won a wide audience.

“It’s grown on me,” he said. “I had seen it years ago and later encountered the fandom of it. The production I saw was on the corny side, a little syrupy. But I’ve worked with Kat before and I thought she would bring a different view to it, something more multidimensional.”

Matt Miller said there’s more depth to the play than a simple reading suggests.

“The script, just reading it, does not do justice at all. It reads corny,” Miller said. “It would be easy for a cast to let it be that way. From working on the show, I want to emphasize the moments that are intense.”

Docel said the play has grown on her as well.

“I’m not drawn to corny plays,” she said.

Walsh said that Almost, Maine is the kind of play where an audience is laughing one minute and holding its breath the next.

She said it was important for the production not to be two dramatic but also not to overemphasize the play’s sweetness.

“I tend to go dark and have to get back to the sweetness,” she said.

Other cast members are Andrew Benson, Matthew Flickinger, Lawrence Havelka, Chris Joseph, Rachael Kohl, Stephanie Laurinec, Joe Lope, Scott Mooney, Sara Rose, Codi Sharp, Megan Shiplett and Michelle Weiss.

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.

”Almost, Maine” will be presented Thursday, March 9 at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturday, March 10-11 at 8 pm; and Sunday, March 12 at 2 pm at the Arthur Miller Theatre on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. Tickets are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $17 for Thursday tickets. Student tickets are $11 for all performances. Tickets are available online at a2ct.org, by calling the office at 734-971-2228, and at the A2CT office at 322 W. Ann St., Ann Arbor.