Portland Press Herald du lieu suivant : Portland, Maine • B2

B2 Portland Press Herald Tuesday, June 21, 2022 LOCAL STATE By STEVE FEENEY Happiness is a warm recovery in the latest play from Public Theatre. In its Maine premiere, the ten- derhearted Here works from the far reaches of its offbeat assemblage of plot lines toward what is ultimately, as reviewed on opening night, an engaging and thought-provoking production. Deborah Zoe play con- cerns an unhappy former college professor named Bari who has spent eight years trying to com- plete a thesis necessary for her to return to teaching. She is now working a manual job packaging imported figurines at a fulfillment center in upstate New York while trying to meaningfully reconcile with the meaninglessness she sees all around her. Bari is quick to defend her pes- simism while a pair of spunky co-workers try, by offering snip- pets of positive thinking rooted in their own coping mechanisms, to find out really going on with her.

They also try hard to fix her up with a date in the hope that a lover might bring her out of her funk. Public Theatre veteran Janet Mitchko takes the lead role and adds just enough vulnerability to her Bari to give her pals (and the audience) some hope that not a lost cause. But when Bari starts suffering seizures that, in their aftermath, provide her with an unexpectedly blissful feeling, things get complicated. Big ques- tions about the nature and causes of true happiness, if there is such a thing, come to the fore and Mitc- hko, in her face, shows the cost of asking them. Sheila Stasack and Mary Mat- tison play co-workers Patty and Luanne who dabble in yoga and meditation while admitting that some of their emotional uplift comes courtesy of prescription medications.

Both performers are standouts in the very welcome lighter mo- ments of the play. Patty contributes working-class wisdom along with touches of tough love as she counsels Bari. Mattison gives bubbly sweet overflow of concern more than enough energy to make her performance especially memora- ble. Things do slow down a bit in the second act when the two are mostly offstage. Bari embarks on a blind date and subsequent choppy relation- ship with the eccentric genius Mike, played by Russell Berrigan as a quirky artist with a striking edge born of a prior trag- edy.

Though he works with found objects, reluctant to take on Bari, especially when her odd, seizure-related personality takes charge. Longish conversations between the two about nihilism, redemp- tion and whether happiness is a choice, not to mention apparent need for medical atten- tion, get quite heavy. But the two do form a bond after some rather tense moments, and a gentle de- nouement to this roughly 90-min- ute-plus-intermission show be- comes possible. The workplace and rough-hewn home sets by Amber Callahan, folksy costumes by Debra Susi, subject-to-quick-change lighting by Erin Fauble, and occasionally spaced-out sound by John Morri- son all serve to give this Christo- pher Schario-directed production a good feel for the elusive here and now located within this un- usual play. Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

Here takes a heavy look at the subject of happiness The thought-provoking play is having its Maine premiere at the Public Theatre in Lewiston. Photo courtesy of The Public Theatre Russell Berrigan as Mike and Janet Mitchko as Bari in Here at The Public Theatre in Lewiston. WHAT: Here at The Public Theatre WHERE: 31 Maple Lewiston REVIEWED: June 17, continues through June 26; video-on-demand available June 21-26 TICKETS: (group rates available) CONTACT: 207-782-3200; thepublictheatre.org THEATER REVIEW AUBURN Police continue to investigate 2 deaths A Maine State Police Evi- dence Response Team van remained in the driveway of the house at 49 Fourth St. in Auburn where the in- vestigation began after two bodies were found Sunday morning. The area of Fourth Street between Cook and Dunn streets remained closed.

Neighbors say the house was the source of multiple comings and goings of unfamiliar persons. Residents from across the street also noticed the car of one of the victims, Kelzie Caron, had been missing for several days, and that the air conditioning unit from the second-floor apartment where Caron lived with her two daugh- ters had been pushed out. Maine State Police are leading the investigation and have yet to release an official statement. Sun Journal PORTLAND Jury finds officer used excessive force A jury awarded $150,000 to a convicted drug dealer who sued an Auburn police officer for excessive force after a police dog bit the man on the knee during his arrest. Romelly Dastinot, who lived in Lewiston eight years ago, lodged a civil complaint in federal court against three Auburn police officers stemming from his 2014 arrest outside an Auburn club.

After deliberating for less than four hours at the con- clusion of a four-day trial, a jury reached verdicts Fri- day evening against three Auburn police officers who were accused of excessive force and unlawful arrest. The jury found that Of- ficer Mark Lemos had un- lawfully stopped or seized Dastinot on the night of Feb. 14, 2014, outside the Naral Club in Auburn, but that Lemos used excessive force against Dastinot when he deployed his Taser. The jury also ruled that Dastinot proved his case against Auburn Lt. Scott Watkins for unlawful arrest, nor had he proved Watkins had arrested him in retaliation for use of protected speech.

Also, Watkins used exces- sive force against Dastinot that night, the jury found by a preponderance of evidence, which is the stan- dard of proof required in a civil court proceeding. Dastinot did prove that Officer Tyler Ham had used excessive force against him and that Dastinot was entitled to compen- satory damages totaling $150,000, according to court documents. He had been seeking $250,000 in compensatory damages and that same amount in punitive damag- es from each of the officers involved. Dastinot, who was 35 years old at that time, was identified as the ringleader of a Lewiston drug traf- ficking ring that purchased heroin, crack cocaine, oxycodone pills and other drugs in Massachusetts to sell in Maine. He was eventually sen- tenced to serve 14 years in federal prison.

Sun Journal Dispatches shows that we were victori- ous U.S. District Court Judge Lance E. Walker based his judgment on a January ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which ordered the Federal Highway Administration to reassess and clarify their approval of Maine Depart- ment of plan for the bridge. Maine DOT considered the January ruling a victo- ry, as it rejected several of the arguments. Walker awarded the attor- ney and expert fees, which covered 70 percent of the legal costs, be- cause some of the govern- arguments justified, he wrote.

Yet he also noted the federal de- fendants may still reach the conclusion that the Frank J. Wood Bridge must be replaced. The controversy sur- rounding the future of the bridge over the Andro- scoggin River has bubbled since the Maine DOT im- posed a 25-ton weight lim- it in August 2016 following an inspection that showed the deterioration of structural Accord- ing to court documents, the agency considered a plan to renovate the structure to extend its life by 75 years but determined it would be cheaper to destroy the bridge and build a replace- ment that could stand 100 years. About 19,000 vehicles per day use the bridge, one of the largest metal truss bridges built during the Great Depression, accord- ing to court records. Advocates of preserving the original 1932 bridge filed a lawsuit against DOT and the FHA in September 2019, arguing the agencies relied on inaccurate calcu- lations when they deter- mined the cost of rebuilding the structure ($17.3 million over 100 years) would be less than half the cost of renovating ($35.2 million over 75 years).

The Historic Bridge Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States joined Friends of Frank J. Wood as plaintiffs. According to the Depart- ment of Transportation Act, an agency can only ap- prove the destruction of a protected historic site like the Frank J. Wood Bridge if an alternative plan would result in costs of an extraordinary magni- The First Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the plaintiffs that DOT and the FHA had erred by not discounting future costs to current dollar equiva- lents. It ordered the FHA to either justify its ratio- nale or determine wheth- er the difference between the discounted project estimates ($13.7 million to build a new bridge vs.

$20.8 million to refurbish) is great enough to justify disturbing a historic site. The agencies remained confident that their pro- posal would survive legal scrutiny. opinion makes clear what Maine- DOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) already the agency said in a statement. cost of rehabilitating the Frank J. Wood Bridge is much greater than the cost of replacing it.

The Court is requiring one ad- ditional factual finding, but we are confident that the result will be the same: the villages of Brunswick and Topsham are going to be connected by a new, safer bridge that better serves all users, including pedes- trians and The FHA has not yet pro- duced an updated analysis of the cost of replacing the bridge, but Maine three-year work plan, re- leased in January, esti- mates the project will now cost over $33 million thanks to rising labor and material costs. The rising cost, combined with ruling, has given members of Friends of Frank J. Wood Bridge new hope be able to save the structure. continue to wait to find out when and how Fed- eral Highway will under- take a new and hopefully fair and honest analysis of the costs and remain con- vinced that without skew- ing the numbers to favor a new bridge, the law will require that the Frank J. Wood Bridge be re- habilitated to serve an- other century or a group spokesperson wrote in a Facebook Post.

John Terhune 207-877-1538 Twitter: BRIDGE Continued from Page B1 The cost of rehabilitating the Frank J. Wood Bridge is much greater than the cost of replacing it. The Court is requiring one additional factual finding, but we are confident that the result will be the same: the villages of Brunswick and Topsham are going to be connected by a new, safer bridge that better serves all users, including pedestrians and FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION Please see BRIEFS, Page B3 HERMAN MAINE COAST BOOK SHOPS A Summertime A and the reading is easy A is now open in the Falmouth Shopping Center 7 Days a Week 9 AM to 6 PM 207-781-4808 Freeport Damariscotta Bar Harbor Boothbay Harbor Windham Old Port Rockland Topsham Falmouth shermans.com Visit all 9 locations this Summer! Maine's Top agenT For over 20 Years! real estate team EACH OFFICE INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED 116 Transactions So Far in 2022! Maine's Top Agent For 20 Years! real team 164 Properties Sold so far in 2015 EACH OFFICE INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED 349Transactions so far in 2020! DavidBanksTeam.com 207.773.2345DavidBanksTeam.com 207.773.2345.