Circle Mirror Transformation
Hyde Park Theatre brings Annie Baker’s Obie-winning comedy to well-acted, entertaining life
Reviewed by Avimaan Syam, Fri., July 23, 2010
Circle Mirror Transformation
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd
Through Aug. 7
Running time: 1 hr., 40 min.
I've always been wary of novels about writers or plays about doing theatre: I'm all for writing what you know, but the choice seems to have an edge of self-indulgence combined with an unwillingness to explore the unknown that bothers me. My first glance at Circle Mirror Transformation's stage – a windowless classroom with cubbyholes and wooden floor – brought this arrogant wariness instantly to mind. When the play opened with a hive-mind theatre game of group counting, I smiled wryly. Of course it would.
And with its premise – a motley crew taking an adult drama class in small-town Vermont – Circle Mirror Transformation might have veered off into the absurd insularity of Waiting for Guffman or some such fancy. But Mirror really is about reaching out. The class of five really are trying to fill voids in their lives, looking for change, hence desperate enough to take an adult drama class at a local community center.
Mirror's characters do have some rather absurd streaks in them, sure, but never at the price of their humanity. This distinction gives a richness to Annie Baker's comedies that many humorous plays miss the mark on. This is the second Baker work that Hyde Park Theatre has put on, following the successful spring production of Body Awareness. A very similar structure is seen in the two: episodic movement between scenes, an artificial touchstone demarcating the progression of plot and time.
My feeling after watching two of Baker's works is that they're almost too perfect. Each scene pulls its parachute at the exact right moment. Baker is very adroit at using the punch line as the comedic release of a charged or awkward moment. I wanted her to dig into her characters a little more, rub their vulnerability raw. But even the tender and tragic moments are as succinct, affecting, and effective as you please. Perhaps it's a strange complaint to have: Indeed, the script won the 2010 Obie for Best New American Play.
The action happens completely in the drama course's classroom over its six weeks of training. The characters are all imminently likable, ranging from the recently divorced carpenter sporting jorts and a "Fear the Turtle" shirt to the stolid 16-year-old who would rather not be anywhere. The plot slowly shifts its focus from one romantic relationship to another and truly holds the class itself as its main character. Being in a class with other people is a relationship you can't get out of, a dangerous quality that playwright Baker and director Webster work to full effect.
Hyde Park's cast is one of its strengths as always, a marvelous ensemble highlighted by Kenneth Wayne Bradley's earnest ignorance and Xochitl Romero's standout performance as the hilariously turgid teenager. While Body Awareness had a stronger emotional element to its narrative, Circle Mirror Transformation is certainly more entertaining.
