The concept of Recovering Romantic is simple.

Whether or not we’re drinkers, we have all seen Alcoholics Anonymous in films and tv, that organization that gives addicts a place to find support on their journey back from rock bottom. AA is now part of our mythology. In theory one goes because one seeks to recover, to stop being ruled by the addiction even if that’s easier said than done.

No wonder AA is such a perfect template for exploring relationships, via the idea that we’re recovering from our addiction to romance. I think we all have had the romantic dream, even if it sometimes seems more like a nightmare. Whether we have found a happy relationship or given up, the dream is completely relatable.

Recovering Romantic is Briane Nasimok’s creation, shown in Toronto as a preview tonight before it opens at the Halifax Fringe Festival next month.

We were welcomed into Red Sandcastle Theatre by Lesley Ballantyne, who gave us name tags as though we too had all come there as fellow recovering romantics, and she were the facilitator of our meeting. Lesley ran the show from behind us in the booth, which makes sense because she also directed the play. She spoke in a kind unconditionally supportive voice as though she were a psychotherapist, leading us all over a microphone as though it were an AA meeting meant for recovering romantics. But that’s not wrong. Romantic dreams seem to be the norm in our world.

And she handed us a page with our affirmations that we were to say as prompted. The organization’s name as we see on the sheet is “Romantics Anonymous”.

I know Briane Nasimok from a few places, including opera, stand up comedy, and Confessions of an Operatic Mute: his Fringe show from roughly a decade ago.

Briane is a natural story-teller who reminds me of a cross between Woody Allen and Groucho. He’s Jewish of course. I found myself recalling Portnoy’s Complaint in Briane’s storytelling, possibly because Portnoy was also Jewish, or maybe because Portnoy is such an adolescent. Men in our culture often begin by looking at women this way, and struggle to break out of that. Hm, I suppose it’s a lot like the addiction that Briane is exploring. So there’s some deep truth underlying the story.

Recovering Romantic is a confessional monologue. True love isn’t funny. Ah but what about romantic disaster? that’s pure gold.

Briane’s delivery is as smooth as ever. And amazingly he looks younger now than he did in the operatic mute show a decade ago. Standing before audiences telling stories seems to agree with him.

For now it’s a Fringe show, but I suspect the idea is bigger than what we saw, that there could be more to this concept, going as far as Briane is willing to go. As the show is repeated Briane will flesh it out further. Maybe he could actually invite a couple of us to come up onto the stage to tell our horror stories, our confessions? We’ve all had them. Or Briane could plant a couple of actors in the audience as fake audience members with scripted dating disaster stories. I could even see this as a tv show, or perhaps a reality TV show. I think Briane has hit on something universal. It’s as big as he wants to make it.

With a theatre full of fellow Recovering Romantics Briane is speaking to all of us. I have no doubt that he will have a sympathetic audience of fellow sufferers & recovering addicts in Halifax.