Boulevard Productions’ Circle Mirror Transformation is a faithful and competent take on Annie Baker’s 2009 tragicomedy.
The play follows a group of people of different ages taking a beginners’ drama class at their local community centre. The class is taught by Marty (Hope Healy) who over six weeks leads the group through a series of drama games. Her students are her husband James (Andrew Spielmann), Schultz (Alec Greene), a recently divorced carpenter, Theresa (Alex Coupland), a failed actress and aspiring masseuse who has just moved to Vermont from New York and Lauren (Evangeline LaFond), a painfully self-conscious sixteen year old. As the group grows closer, their lives become entangled in complicated ways.
The nature of the play is fragmentary. We see a series of discontinuous drama exercises performed across six weeks. Each exercise is separated by a small blackout. Whenever the week changes, there is a longer blackout and the cast leaves the stage. A sign signals which week we are on. During the blackout, Tarund Mohanthas treats us to some live music on the electric guitar. Although Mohanthas is obviously a talented musician and the music is pleasant, it seems to serve little purpose other than ensuring that the audience has something to distract them during the long blackouts which are unfortunately still rather awkward.
The acting is by far the most impressive aspect of the production, with great performances by the entire cast, who are individually talented but most importantly very aware of and responsive to each other’s performances. Especially for an opening night, they were remarkably graceful and self-assured.
Healy in the role of Marty is a standout. She is completely believable as an older woman and her wide, patronising smiles and motherly gestures are the source of much of the show’s humour. However, Healy is clearly a great dramatic actress too. She perfectly conveys the tension between trying to tease out the group’s vulnerabilities and being emotionally neglected herself. She has a very expressive face, which, as the play unfolds, becomes increasingly torn. Spielmann joins her in an equally subtle performance. There is a great gentleness in his approach to James’ somewhat elusive character which makes him hard not to feel for.
Greene has a particularly difficult task with the character of Schultz, who is often the butt of the joke and as his budding relationship with Theresa goes awry could be played unpleasantly. In Greene’s hands, however, Schultz is always sympathetic. He was clearly an audience favourite, eliciting many laughs. Schultz’s infatuation with Theresa is also entirely convincing: Greene’s puppy-like adoration of his classmate is both funny and endearing. Alex Coupland’s Theresa is very charming and great at depicting emotional conflict.
All the cast are skilled at background acting, they are always reacting to each other which makes them a pleasure to watch. LaFond is particularly good at making us feel her age and discomfort in what is a very physical performance. It was easy to get distracted watching her reactions. She carries the play’s ending with grace and subtlety.
It must be said that this is not a script that strongly speaks to me. In many ways the characters – although some more than others – remain frustratingly stereotypical and multiple of its lines feel like misguided attempts at profundity, so it really is a testament to the actors’ skill that I was kept engaged with material until the end.
Loris Avery’s set is simple but very effective. The Pilch is papered over for the second time this term, now with faux wood panelling. A mirror covers the back wall of the Pilch and a yoga ball lies in one corner. It perfectly evokes the space without getting in the way of the intimacy which Charlie Lewis, the director, seems to be aiming for.
The lighting by George Gibb, who is also responsible for the sound design, is similarly effective in its simplicity. The sound is less successful. At the end of the play, it is supposed to evoke a busy street and mark the transition between a drama exercise and reality, but the sound is far too quiet and indistinct and it is hard to understand what is going on.
At certain moments it felt like the text needed to be interpreted more strongly. When Marty sets up the game of secrets is she innocently introducing a new drama game or does she hope her husband will reveal himself? Similarly, it would have been good to set up with James’ attraction to Theresa that seems to appear out of nowhere.
Lewis and his team have put together a strong production which is certainly worth your time. As a faithful interpretation of Annie Baker’s play, little can be said against it.
You can watch Circle Mirror Transformation at the Michael Pilch Studio 1st-4th December at 7.30pm
