While watching the full dress rehearsal of “The Fantasticks” at the Boothbay Playhouse August 12, I found that I didn't have to “Try to Remember” what it felt like to be young. This musical is experienced on dual levels; absorbing you into the lives of the two young sweethearts while casting your heart back, ever so wistfully, to your own first love.

“The Fantasticks,” first performed in May 1960, is also a story about the loss of innocence, about the time in our lives when the moon (our dreams, fantasies and desires) is first burned by the sun (the world, experience, reality) and how we emerge from the experience.

The homes of Louisa (Devin Domeyer) and Matt (Roger Reed), are separated by a wall, built by their fathers in a contrived feud to keep them apart — or is it? Walls serve many purposes. They keep things in and out. A wall can also create mystery, and the air of the forbidden; a heady mix for young people falling in love.

When we first meet Louisa, she is an imaginative, dreamy, 16-year-old whose enthusiasm and romantic nature are endearing and familiar. She dreams of the adventures and love she wants to have.

Matt is 20, an educated young man who says he “knows how things are.” But when he is with Louisa, he “performs the impossible.” Only Louisa can “hear the explosion of his soul.”

Louisa and her father, Bellomy (Dan True), live on one side of the wall. He is a man who loves his garden because it is much more predictable than than his 16-year-old daughter. A garden just needs plenty of water.

He tells us when we meet him, “I'm her father and it isn't easy. That's why I love vegetables: they're so dependable. You plant a radish and you know what you're about … What need have I for a rose?”

Matt's father, Hucklebee (Nick Azzaretti), also gardens, but his joy comes from the maintenance of the garden, careful pruning and not too much water. He tells Matt it is time he marries and that he has already chosen the girl.

At this point the fathers must figure out a way to end their fictional feud, without tipping off Matt and Louisa that their plan all along was for the two to marry.

Enter El Gallo (Nicholas Carroll). A man who possesses supernatural abilities that is part bandit, part manipulator, or maybe just a dubious traveling actor. He tells the fathers an abduction could be staged and Matt emerge the hero by saving Louisa. The fathers agree and El Gallo sets off to find his performers. They appear in the forms of a Shakespearean actor Henry Albertson (Joe McGrann), and his sidekick, Mortimer (Cole Domeyer), whose specialty is the art of dying.

All goes as planned, but El Gallo thinks it's time for the illusions of moonlight to be replaced with the harsh light of the sun. In the daylight, and with the wall now torn down, no one is happy. Matt and Louisa have a terrible row and their fathers are bickering with each other, yearning for the wall to be put back up.

Journeys are had by both young lovers who discover the world isn't the way they imagined it would be.

This cast is spectacular. Louisa is a wonderful role for a teenage girl, and Devin Domeyer is terrific, giving a first-rate performance. Reed, too, is right on as the idealistic, romantic Matt. The affection the characters have for one another will feel real, no matter where you are sitting in the theater. Sigh.

McGrann is brilliant, a consummate performer who dazzles. Seriously. When he is onstage, you are far too entertained and delighted to look elsewhere. Cole Domeyer shows off his comedic and gymnastic talents as Mortimer. True and Azzaretti portray the fathers with ease. And, Nick Mirabile, as the mute, well, Nick can speak without words.

Don't miss this final show of the 2013 season at the Boothbay Playhouse. There's a reason this musical has run for decades: everyone wants to remember and this production of “The Fantasticks” will provide just the right spark. Show dates: August 15-17 and 21-23 at 8 p.m., one matinee on August 18 at 4 p.m. Call the box office for tickets: 207-633-3379.

The Boothbay Playhouse is located at 275 Wiscasset Road in Boothbay. For more information visit www.boothbayplayhouse.com.