Reviews

Wright, a recent graduate of the University of Southern Maine, is an especially talented addition to the local acting pool, which has a wealth of character actors but is short on leading men.

Wright is a leading man and a half. His Orlando is witty, soulful and sexy but not quite clever enough to recognize his true love, Rosalind, in pants. Although Orlando is the youngest son of a nobleman, Wright imbues him with an earthy charisma that wins the heart of his lady and the audience.

Young actors with a flair for Shakespeare are rare in Maine. Seeing Wright's mastery of the language and the character in "As You Like It," led to imagining him in other roles — Henry V, Petruchio, Benedick, Hamlet and Macbeth.

 Having seen “The Hunting Trail,” I can attest that Wright does just that. Riley’s camera captures the stark beauty of Maine’s wilderness and the specificity of the character’s routine as he strikes out on his solo trek, while Wright is magnetic as a taciturn man whose loaded silence is only broken when the nature he’s exploring turns on him with one, seemingly insignificant misstep. 

 It’s a sweet, funny and relatable story delivered by two performers who know how to charm an audience. Wright makes his character irresistible, all the while portraying a buttoned-up certified public accountant who believes he’s unlikeable. The expressive actor performs with a vivaciousness that is made even more vibrant by his pairing with the animated Larocque as Maude. The couple have good chemistry and a knack for getting the audience to fall in love with their idiosyncratic characters. 

Wright and Larocque deliver the nearly two-hour, two-act production with ease and a naturalness that draws the audience in. As the story unfolds and the characters’ relationship grows, so does the audience’s love for the characters.