Broadway Blogs - Oleanna & Circle Mirror Transformation and More...

Perhaps Hughes' point was in fact to depict the helplessness of those accused of sexual harassment and other sexual crimes; arguing that facts read in the papers and heard in courtrooms may not accurately represent what has occurred.  If so, then a less obvious touch is necessary if the smirks and laughter I heard from the audience during some of Carol's accusations are also a regular occurrence at the Golden Theatre.

Photos of Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles by Craig Schwartz

*************************************************************

Annie Baker's genial but somewhat aimless Circle Mirror Transformation begins with five rather ordinary people lying on a floor and trying, as a group, to count from one to ten.  When the mood strikes, one of them calls out a number and any of the others, when the mood strikes, may call out the next number, but if two or more speak at the same time they must go back to one and start over.  Soon after, the group members are walking around the room at high speed, shaking hands with anyone they encounter.  Later, the group stands in a circle and one of them makes a body motion and emits a sound the others must mirror until another person transforms it into another motion.

If you're smiling with recognition then no doubt you've taken an improvisational acting class similar to the one Baker depicts in the community center of a small Vermont town.  Its perpetually smiling and upbeat teacher, Marty (Deirdre O'Connell), spends the six week course leading her students in such theatre games to help build physical awareness.  There's her husband, James (Peter Friedman), being happily supportive; Theresa (Heidi Schreck), a New York actress who moved to Vermont to escape the competitiveness of the business; Schultz (Reed Birney), a divorced furniture maker a bit lacking in personality and 16-year-old Lauren (Tracee Chimo), an aspiring actress who hopes that taking the class will help her win the role of Maria in her high school's production of West Side Story.

The author's idea is a good one; introducing relationships between the characters in short scenes taking place just before class or during breaks and seeing how they start revealing themselves through the various exercises.  Director Sam Gold keeps his very likeable cast on a naturalistic level (though perhaps a few too many "significant" silences) but the play never truly takes off on its concept.  The marital problems between Marty and James, the short-lived romance between Schultz and Theresa and Lauren's disappointment that the class doesn't involve reading from actual playscripts are touched upon but not sufficiently explored to carry much interest through the intermissionless hour and fifty minutes.  Subtlety is nice, but the play is dramatically weightless.

Photo of Tracee Chimo, Deirdre O'Connell, Heidi Schreck, Reed Birney and Peter Friedman by Joan Marcus.