★★★☆☆ A chance to revisit Once is always welcome, particularly when the musical is as well cast as in the Hackmatack Playhouse revival in Berwick, ME. JD Raines and Lauren Quigley play aspiring singer-songwriters “Guy” and “Girl” down on their luck in Dublin, who despite different nationalities (he’s Irish, she’s Czech), backgrounds, and broken romances, forge a bond founded on a deep mutual love of music – a rom-com in which the lovers barely so much as touch, let alone kiss or become otherwise intimate. The fun of the piece, with book by Enda Walsh based on the Oscar-winning 2007 movie, lies in the variously comic or poignant interactions with Guy and Girl’s relatives, mates, hangers-on and new friends. It’s very much a play about community, and the individual Hackmatack actors are as deft in sketching out vivid performances as they are accompanying the action on live instruments. Unfortunately, the sense of deep ensemble is little served by the decision of director Tom Alsip to confine the bulk of the action to a shallow proscenium stage at one end of the building, forcing the cast to constantly troop on and off left and right in desultory, predictable fashion. What’s worse, as they line up behind the principals they might just as well be an onstage pit band, all sense of group energy erased. Some use is made of a hanamichi (a long narrow ramp jutting out from the stage), but not enough to envelop us in the lives and vibes of these diverse Dubliners. Had the choice been made to seat the audience as two facing groups, or just to stage the action in the round, I’m sure this cast would have brought alive the requisite communal spirit to make the show soar. As it is, the whole stays earthbound, though the prodigious talents make it well worth the visit. Runs through Sept. 20; https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/hackmatack/7168 for tickets.