(L-R) Reed Birney as Schultz and Deirdre O'Connell as Marty explore theater games in "circle mirror transformation." (Joan Marcus)
In the town of Shirley, Vermont, several people are taking a weekly summer acting class. Said class is taught by Marty (Deirdre O'Connell), who clearly believes that getting in touch with one's inner feelings is an important aspect when learning the craft. As such, she continually puts the class of four through its various paces with such exercises as having students anticipate what the others in the group are going to say, employing techniques showing how to relax one's body and mind, and sitting around in a circle completing and adding to sentences one word at a time.
It soon becomes clear that the students have some substantial personal baggage. This group includes Marty's husband James (Peter Friedman), who's also taking the class. There's also 16-year-old Lauren (Tracee Chimo), who is in great haste to become a serious actress; and Schultz (Reed Birney), who has a debilitating inability to open up about anything. These are just some issues lurking below the surface of the classmates’ exteriors, with it being only a matter of time before some of them explode.
It's interesting to note that there was a lot of laughter of familiarity during the various class sequences, showing that: (1) Many in the audience have gone through such a learning experience at one point or another in their lives; and (2) Such exercises can look quite ridiculous when watching the proceedings either as an observer or a participant.
Indeed, at one point Lauren, who is planning to audition for a role in “West Side Story,” asks Marty if they're ever going to start doing some scenes and dialogue readings, noting Marty's method of teaching is not exactly what she signed up for.
However, these acting exercises go on for way too long, taking up close to the entire first hour in the show without having any significant impact on the plot. This is a shame as there are numerous intriguing story elements present, such as an exploration of Marty and James's troubled marriage, or what happens when Schultz and fellow student Theresa (Heidi Schreck) begin a passionate affair.
Unfortunately, these story lines take a backseat to the acting classes themselves, the result being intriguing snapshots of these five people's lives, but never delving into anything deeper.
Sam Gold's lackluster direction must share at least part of the blame, with Gold and Baker seemingly unable to decide whether the work should be played as a comedy or drama (the script seems to try to have the best of both worlds). The result is that it doesn't work quite right in either genre with the actors caught in the middle doing the best they can with their characters. (It doesn’t help that the characters never really change over the course of the play.)
O'Connell is the best in the acting department, offering in Marty a sort of idealistic teacher who has great faith in her skills and believes others should as well, as evident in her conversation with Lauren mentioned above. Birney is good as the quiet Schultz with a lot of emotional issues he needs to work through. (He and Schreck also have good chemistry in their scenes together.)
The play's epilogue, of sorts, helps to tie the loose ends together, but the information contained therein needs to be explored earlier to really work—which is a shame as it's the one point in the work where the characters suddenly become full-blown individuals.
David Zinn's set of the classroom works fine, as does Mark Barton's lighting and Leah Gelpe's sound design.
“circle mirror transformation” is not a bad play. It's just that the message of the show, which is finding the ability within yourself to change, never really comes to fruition. It's an interesting effort, but in the end the transformation mentioned in the show's title just isn't there.
circle mirror transformation
Playwrights Horizons
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
416 West 42nd Street
Tickets: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Closes: November 15
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication, The Stage.
