[NEohioPAL] Review of "Circle Mirror Transformation" at Dobama Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

Perseverance pays off at Dobama's 'Circle Mirror Transformation' 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald 4/29/11

 

"We can't return we can only look behind
>From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game"

 

These lyrics from the Circle Game, written in 1970 by folksinger Joni Mitchell, seem to capture the essence of Annie Baker's new play Circle Mirror Transformation, currently on stage at the Dobama Theatre.  And, as is the case with folk music, the story being told in this play is more complex than its simple, slow storytelling lets on.  

 

Circle Mirror Transformation explores the six weeks of a small town community center adult education drama class.  The five participants in the class perform a series of asinine, self-discovery acting exercises during this two-act play, with each exercise in futility separated by a blackout. They imitate inanimate objects-a bed, a tree, a baseball glove-and do so poorly.  They have conversations using nonsense words and are inept.  They lay on the parquet floor with their eyes closed repeatedly trying, and failing, to count to 10 without any two people speaking at the same time.  

 

The participants are broken creatures all. In fact, they are largely defined by their frailties.   Marty (Molly Cornwell) is the earth-mother drama instructor who can't heal her own marriage; James (Bob Ellis) is Marty's philandering husband who lost the trust of his daughter as well as his wife; Theresa (Leighann Niles DeLorenzo) is an energetic New Yorker fleeing from her latest toxic relationship; Schultz (Joe Milan) bares the emotional scar tissue from his recent divorce; and Lauren (Allison Bencar) is a lost, sullen teenager in desperate need of direction.

 

Baker's plays delight in the power of silence and stillness. As such, this play is painstakingly  slow in developing, with each inane acting exercise ending on the inhale, just before something of significance is about to be revealed. For most of the play, nothing seems to happen. 

Juliette Regnier's direction slows this play down even more.  Each blackout seems longer than it needs to be.  Each character finds a private moment to stare into the mirror that fills the community center wall, recognizing something in their reflection but revealing nothing.  

This production does not go for, nor does it achieve, the laughs found in the off-Broadway world premiere of the play or in subsequent productions of it.  Mark Kobak's set offers nothing to look at.

It is easy for those in attendance to grow impatient with this play and give up on this production before its conclusion.  However, those willing to finish the breaths started by the actors, daring to ponder in the darkness of the prolonged blackouts, and able to connect with the wonderfully nuanced performances by each of the actors will be rewarded.   

What eventually emerges are the private, personal epiphanies experienced by each of these haunted characters.  It becomes clear by the play's end that the acting exercises Marty, James, Schultz, Theresa, Lauren and we have suffered through have slowly, methodically exorcized their demons.  They have come to realize that in life, as in song, we can't return we can only look behind from where we came.     

 

Perseverance pays off in Baker's less-is-more Circle Mirror Transformation, for the characters and for the audience.

 

Circle Mirror Transformation continues through May 15 at the Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $25, call 216-932-3396 or visit www.dobama.org.
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