Review: CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION at American Theatre Company

In the author's note to her play Circle Mirror Transformation, playwright Annie Baker writes, "I hope that you will portray these characters with compassion. They are not fools." American Theatre Company's production of Circle Mirror Transformation, which recently finished its run at Studio 308, presented an incredibly compassionate and warm depiction of Baker's eclectic cast of characters.

The play depicts a series of acting classes set entirely at a community center in small-town Vermont. Nearly every scene is comprised of theatrical exercises, and these seemingly incidental games provide sharp insights into the lives of four students and their teacher, Marty. This setting lent itself to a fun metathearical opportunity in ATC's production: the space in the back of Studio 308 where the show was performed functioned as a theatre studio decked out like a theatre studio. This created a kind of intimacy and familiarity from the very moment that the audience entered the theatre. In a way, it seemed as though the stage space sprouted up organically from the back of Studio 308 - and yet the carefully curated details, like the mats, cushions, discarded shawls, and various bits and bobs, revealed the intentionality behind it all.

Annie Baker, a playwright famous for her brutally honest naturalism and momentous pauses, gives the audience no exposition or explicit elucidation of character in Circle Mirror Transformation: most scenes simply bounce from one theatre game to another, and these are broken up by flickering blackouts punctuated by music. As the scenes of the play unfold, the audience gets a window into the zany world of introductory theatre classes, with games that range from banal to absurd to deeply moving. They are fascinating enough to transcend the niche theatre-lover appeal, but still are wonderfully familiar to former drama kids (the on-stage environment was instantly recognizable to everyone who has taken an acting class like Marty's). In addition to the games, the play includes some brief but crucial conversations during mid-class "breaks." Appropriately enough, the industrial lights came on during these moments, casting a more starkly realist wash over the characters.

The play between reality and imagination is precisely what makes Circle Mirror Transformation so striking, and the ATC cast perfected this delicate mix between Marty's vision of theatrical truth and a deeper authenticity. Baker's script is a masterpiece, but ultimately, it was up to the actors - meaning the ATC cast, not their characters - to tell their stories through the games and brief moments between them. Over the course of the play, I attempted to keep a running list of all the games that were played on stage, and I soon realized that it was difficult to engage in the emotional work of the play while taking this cerebral approach. The one thing that all of the games had in common was that they caused a kind of forced intimacy; like the characters themselves, the audience can't help but try to find meaning in all of these exercises. It is in this process of making meaning that the heart of the play is revealed.

The character of Lauren serves an audience stand-in for these moments of revelation. Lauren is a high schooler and the black sheep of the group in a way that extends beyond just her age. At one point, she reveals her uniquely practical motivation for joining Marty's class: unlike the others, who joined for less precise and driven reasons, she signed up to prepare for an audition for a musical being put on by her high school. Milena Hernandez, who played Lauren in the ATC production, captured this sense of hovering on the outside of this adult world with an impressive subtlety - she was able to provide a proxy for our own observations of the other characters without becoming a cartoonish Jim Halpert who simply winks at the audience. Her snark was measured and never attempted to overtake the other players, each of whom was a formidable force in their own right.

Kody Burns, who played Theresa, confused me at first with her stunningly authentic rendition of someone who is trying a little too hard - at the start, I was convinced that she was just trying too hard. This is the magic of Circle Mirror Transformation: the play demands that the audience engages in this process of interrogation throughout the entire play. Ms. Burns provided a study in this layering of intention and behavior, and it was a pleasure to watch her work. Timothy Hunter was absolutely haunting as Schultz, and his sadness permeated each scene with a kind of measured melancholy. Kathleen Hope as Marty was positively magnetic and reminded me of every acting teacher I've ever had while establishing herself as a fully fleshed-out person that extends beyond the shawl-wearing caricature. Adrian Alexander had the difficult task of playing perhaps the most mysterious character of the group, and he portrayed James with a captivating balance of intensity and fragility.

The game-intensive script of Circle Mirror Transformation might initially seem like it's just for people who are peripherally interested in theatre to reflect on their own foibles. At first, it almost seems as if Annie Baker were asking, "If people actually saw what we were doing in acting class, would they ever take us seriously?" The key to making the play transcend this idea is truly in the acting and direction (by the wonderfully energetic Angela McLaughlin). It is ultimately a great and well-directed cast that makes the characters relatable, and ATC's rendition embodies a significant bit of advice from Baker's author's note: "Without its silences this play is a satire, and with its silences, it is, hopefully, a strange little naturalistic meditation on theater and life and death and the passing of time." The pauses and moments of tragically realistic inhalations, inflections, and fallen glances are what allow Circle Mirror Transformation to really touch audiences - and I have no doubt that Ms. Baker would be proud of the nuanced and refined interpretation at ATC.

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