This weekend I saw "Circle Mirror Transformation" by Annie Baker at Playwrights Horizons, an off-Broadway theater on 42nd street. The play was about an acting class for adults in Shirley, Vermont, a completely made up small town. Well, that was what it was about before you went and saw it that is. The woman sitting next to me didn't even realize that the set was supposed to be acting studio and instead said "This really does look like a gym, doesn't it!" to the person sitting next to her.
Anyway, I thought the play was really moving. All the actors portrayed their characters beautifully, and as we said in class, they didn't stray away from "their character's definition", or whatever you want to call it. Everyone was very distinct, and there were people of all ages. The youngest character was 16 and wanted to be an actress, but was having some troubles at home. Another character just divorced his wife, was still wearing his wedding ring, and had a crush on another one of the students in a class. Mind you, this class consisted of 4 students and the teacher (one of the students was the teacher's husband). They did a lot of different acting activities like walking around the room and getting faster and faster; or having a dialogue with one person but the only think you can say is "Goolash"; or counting up to 10 where one person says each number without talking at the same time. Through these exercises we got to learn about all the people in the room, their back stories, their "now" stories. The great thing about the writing was that a lot of the time the stage was completely silent...there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue. I really like shows where all 5 actors can sit on stage not saying anything and it is completely entertaining. And I was, completely entertained. I didn't think about what I would eat for dinner once during the whole hour and 40 minutes.
So I thought I saw good theater. There were moments of surprise, moments of high tension, there was an understood message to the show. It was a good experience.
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Montana,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it! I thought you would. "Circle Mirror Transformation" is a play that engendered some controversy among friends of mine; it became, I think, a kind of litmus test for our interest in realism...and it started a lot of conversations about our own experiences growing up taking just the kind of classes you saw on stage.
The characters, though, are so, SO finely drawn -- for that, alone, I think the play is worth viewing. And the last five minutes just might be one of the best five minutes I've seen onstage since I arrived in New York. And they wouldn't have the impact they do if the ensemble didn't earn them over the course of the evening.
That said, if I never have to do the "nonsense argument" again, I'll be okay with it...flashbacks to college acting classes...