BWW Reviews: Maugham's THE CIRCLE Encompasses Theatre 40

The Circle/by W. Somerset Maugham/directed by Jules Aaron/Theatre 40/through October 28

by guest reviewer Stan Mazin

The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham is a comedy of manners… a story with 2 triangles, one an elderly couple, and the second, youthful.  In the first, the woman, Lady Kitty (played rightfully 'over the top' by a very funny but full of heart Rhonda Lord) has left her first husband, Clive Champion-Cheney (beautifully and truthfully played, but with a dash of humor, by the brilliant Lloyd Pedersen) when she falls in love with the then dashing Lord (Huey) Porteus (very well played by David Hunt Stafford).  In the youthful triangle, Elizabeth (elegantly acted by the beautiful Shelby Kocee) is married to Arnold (largely playing an actor as well as a wonderful violinist by the name of Scott Facher), when she realizes that she has fallen in love, and vice versa, with a man of little means, Teddie (handsomely acted by Ross Alden).  Now to get things relatively straight, Arnold is the son of Lady Kitty and Clive Champion-Cheney.  So it seems that the daughter–in-law, Elizabeth, may be following in the footsteps of her mother-in-law. This all occurs in the beautiful upscale house in Dorset, England in the 1930s, brought to life in the beautiful set design by Jeff G. Rack, great costuming by Michele Young (I was particularly taken by a simple but gorgeous Kelly green period gown that Shelby wore), and good light design by Ric Zimmerman.

Jules Aaron, having come from his critically acclaimed direction of The Paris Letter at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre, did as much as any director could with this period masterpiece.  Beginning and ending the play with David Hunt Stafford's live violin playing, and very well executed I must say, as well as having Shelby Kocee singing "I've Got A Crush On You" at the end of Scene 1 (giving the cast a chance to  change clothes for Scene 2), the director brought a sense of musicality to the proceedings… and this follows throughout the play with the chosen music before, between scenes, during the intermission, and at the end, and sometimes even as underscoring as was the tune of "Come Back To Sorrento" during a conversation between the characters of Kitty and Huey, while they talked about their living in Italy (Sound Design by Bill Froggatt). 

The Circle, if played completely straight as it most likely was originally performed, had the scandal of the subject matter to carry the show.  But now, with so many plays containing even more involved and more scandalous subject matter, the director has chosen to make the characters of  Lady Kitty and her son Arnold slightly larger than life, to exaggerate the comic elements.  But I must say that although Lord (Lady Kitty) was very broad in the first act, and I don't mean that as a bad thing, one of my favorite scenes was the one she has with Kocee (Elizabeth), warning her about taking the same action that she did when she was young.  The story is about the mistakes we make once, and then how oftentimes our children follow us.  The dialogue, often comic, is also real and thought provoking… e.g. "The tragedy of life is indifference", one of the great bits of advice Lady Kitty gives to Elizabeth.

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