The Peterborough Players returned to the stage with their second show of the season on Thursday night, with “Circle Mirror Transformation,” a play that takes the microcosm of a six-week community acting class in a community center dance studio and gives the audience a glimpse at the inner lives of the people who take it.
The show features some familiar faces, as well as some new cast members to the Players stage. In her first season at the Players, Marina Re is Marty, the somewhat-whimsical acting teacher who leads our cast of strangers into deeper discoveries about themselves. Her class of four includes her husband, James, played by Douglas Rees; Theresa, an aspiring actress who has given up on New York City, but not quite her dreams of the stage, played by Kate Kenney; Schultz, a neurotic recent divorcee, played by Philip Kershaw; and Lauren, a 16-year-old with hopes of getting the lead in the school play, played by Katie Shults.
The play doesn’t have a strong linear plot. Instead, it slowly reveals pieces of the character’s pasts and insecurities as they work their way through acting exercises.
In fact, a good portion of the two-hour, one-act play is watching the actors go through those exercises. Often, the scenes of the actors doing ridiculous exercises – which causes even Lauren to question if there will be any acting in this acting class – go on a beat (or two, or three) too long.
As someone who was part of an acting group in college, I’ve been part of plenty of the same exorcises played out on the stage – yes, I have, more than once, laid on the floor with a group of people, trying to count up to 10 without interrupting each other, a recurring exercise in the play. It definitely brought back those memories for me, but these kinds of games are more fun to do than watch, particularly when they go on too long.
I believe this is intentional – the games seem actively to drag on past the point of comfort for both the audience and the characters – but it does drag the pace of the play and leaves far less room for the emotional hits of the play.
At its core, the premise of “Circle Mirror Transformation” is an interesting one: A group of strangers who have to allow themselves to be a bit vulnerable while looking ridiculous to each other, but also occasionally have to bare their souls. But the play overall doesn’t seem to take full advantage of the idea. There are flashes here and there of truly effective moments. Kenney, as Theresa, gets a cathartic moment with a scene partner acting as her former boyfriend. When the actors each anonymously share a secret they’ve never told anyone else, some are shocking.
While the set design by Emmy Boisvert perfectly conveys the setting, the lighting design is minimal and the core of the play is the interaction between the actors, who all play off the sweet awkwardness of their conversations well.
The play got plenty of laughs from the audience, but I don’t think I could tell you a joke from the play. The majority of the humor comes from awkwardness. Much of the dialogue takes an approach to the kind of real-life conversations you might have with a near stranger. There are many long – too long – pauses, and sometimes bluntly, almost rudely, asked questions to keep the conversation going.
Kershaw got the biggest laughs of the night, in part because his character, Schultz, is the most socially inept of the bunch, and part due to Kershaw’s comedic timing. Kenney as Theresa pulls off some of the nuances perfectly; it is obvious that her character is the most-experienced in the class, while also trying perhaps just a bit too hard.
Shults as Lauren is believable as a slightly exasperated teenager trying to get something out of the class, while also dealing with unseen pressures in her personal life. Re as acting teacher Marty and Rees as her husband James play off the publicly idyllic but privately quietly crumbling nature of their relationship with deftness.
Each individual actor gives a little something extra to their role, something needed for this play, which only gives side-eye glimpses to the things that are happening when they’re not together in their acting class. Watching them bring to life ordinary people who grow and break relationships over the course of their six weeks together makes this a worthy show for me.
“Circle Mirror Transformation” runs through July 17. Shows are every day except Monday. The curtain opens at 7:30 p.m. on weeknights and Saturdays and 4 p.m. on Sunday. Single tickets are $47, and are on sale at peterboroughplayers.org or by calling the box office at 603-924-7585.The Total Thai Food Truck will be on-site with food available for purchase from 5 to 7 p.m. on July 16.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.