‘Circle Mirror Transformation' views the games some people play

Off Broadway's Playwrights Horizons offers a hyper-real character study

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

Now in previews, several big-deal Broadway attractions open later this month and they sure look like promising shows worth your consideration even before the critics have their say:

"Present Laughter" stars Victor Garber in Roundabout's revival of Noel Coward's semi-biographical 1939 comedy about the frantic home life of a celebrated matinee idol.

"A View From the Bridge" packs Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson in Arthur Miller's 1955 tragedy regarding a Brooklyn longshoreman slowly maddened by repressed lust for his sweet young niece.

"Time Stands Still" offers Laura Linney and Eric Bogosian in Manhattan Theatre Club's premiere of Donald ("Dinner with Friends") Margulies' new play about an adventurous couple trying to settle down.

Until those events come along later in January, I will be playing mostly catch-up on a few current off Broadway productions that somehow escaped my attention last year due to – well, anyway, shame on me and let's get on with the shows.

The curious title for "Circle Mirror Transformation" refers to a physical exercise that actors do in which a circle of individuals mimic each others' motions and in turn provide their own variations for the group. It also proves to be an apt name because Annie Baker's new piece at Playwrights Horizons studies the changing emotional dynamics between some people who are taking a weekly acting class.

Set in a utilitarian dance studio in small town Vermont, the intermission-less 1:50 play presents a series of very brief, very realistic scenes as several middle-aged people – plus one woeful teenager – play through various acting games. These characters and their inner lives gradually come into focus during the class sessions even as their relationships with each other evolve over a number of months.

A delicately textured work, this intimate play reveals its touching depths of character subtly and incrementally. Director Sam Gold orchestrates the seemingly spontaneous happenings with lingering, eloquent pauses and hyper-real touches. Led by a typically vibrant Deirdre O'Connell as an ever-empathetic teacher, a persuasive ensemble of excellent actors believably perform as if they were not acting at all, which is about as challenging as acting ever gets.

Such vivid performances done in designer David Zinn's ultra-authentic surroundings provide the illusion of real life that permits "Circle Mirror Transformation" to work its unusual magic upon viewers.

"Circle Mirror Transformation" continues through Jan. 31 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St., New York. Call (212) 279-4200 or visit playwrightshorizons.com.