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When one walks through the doorways of Hyde Park Theatre and takes his seat at this unassuming black box, he can usually expect to find something bold, powerful and dark on display, full of violence, vulgarity, and depression, but people sitting down for the company's latest productions may be in for a surprise. Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation has many elements Hyde Park loves, including a quirky cast of characters, intense love triangles, and a touch of reality in the work, but the world we find in this play is much brighter, and much funnier, than most of the dark territories we visit on this stage.
Circle Mirror Transformation takes us into the lives of four people who come to an acting class, taught by Katherine Catmull’s Marty, for wildly different reasons, and how, over the course of the six-week class, they it transforms them into different people. Along the way we get plenty of comedy, mostly stemming from inane and hilarious exercises each of the people have thrust upon them. Any actor, or anyone who has ever been in an acting class, will surely crack up at the familiarity of all these activities, but the real humor here comes from how believable these characters and their situations are. Baker has a talent for creating worlds which we believe we ourselves could inhabit, and here Hyde Park brings real honesty to the performance.
Kenneth Wayne Bradley, over the years, has had no problem showing his masculinity, playing butch, aggressive characters full of fire and vinegar, but here, he gets in touch with his feminine side. His Schultz is sensitive, and even a bit clingy, wearing his emotions loosely on his sleeves, wandering around the stage with a goofy smile almost permanently glued to his face. He comes to the role with a fresh-faced naivete, full of youth and vigour, endearing himself to the audience, making his joys our joys, his pains, ours.
Xochitl Romero also takes on a transformation here, hers a more physical one, hiding her gorgeous features behind a pair of glasses an a large hoody, tromping across the boards, head bowed, the very epitome of a nerdy high schooler. Though the youngest of the group, the characters knows she’s smarter than most of the people in the class, and Romero brings this arrogance out to full effect without losing an ounce of her charisma. At a triumphant moment near the end of the play, she finally pulls back the hoody, smile on her face, and we find ourselves smiling right along with her.
Rebecca Robinson almost instantly catches your attention the moment she speaks her first line as Theresa, her combination sweet charm and subtle sexuality enough to enthrall the entire theater. Her ability to play sexy without straying too far into the territories of a vixen or a vamp is admirable, and as every man in the cast falls in love with her, we can relate, as we've surely fallen for her ourselves. She, like all the characters, is not without her faults, but they do not make us love her less. In fact, we’re charmed by every character, mostly because of just how human they seem, thanks how realistically they're drawn by Baker, and how skillfully they're performed by the cast. They become more than just fictional characters in a play, but people we could meet on the street, or find sitting across from us at a blind date.
This, the second of Annie Baker’s plays to be produced this season is quite different than the first. It features a lighter tone, less dark themes, and a more episodic format than its predecessor, Body Awareness, but it still shares its impact. Hilarious, but always honest, Baker and director Ken.jpg)
Webster offer us a window into the lives of these all-too-real acting students, taking us through every joyful, painful experience they have over their six weeks of classes. The play may not be as dark as some have come to expect from the company, but its emotional resonance feels right at home. As you leave the theater, you may feel like you’re leaving some old friends behind, and I can think of few greater successes for a company than that.
Circle Mirror Transformation is playing through August 7th at Hyde Park Theatre. To purchase tickets, and to find out more about the play, be sure to visit their website at hydeparktheater.org
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