Parish Players Presents CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION
And Valley Improv All-Fem show coming up at Sawtooth.
You should know upfront that Circle Mirror Transformation is a quiet, understated play. No car chases, flashy explosions, nor gunshots. No one dies. It’s far from the drama of those old-time soap operas where feelings and secrets are revealed at top volume and at whiplash speed.
Instead, it’s a highly probable story of five people, mostly unknown to each other, who convene in an acting class at a community center in small-town Shirley, Vermont. Marty (Darby Hiebert) is running the show, Theresa (Gwendolyn Dae Roland) is a new arrival in Shirley, Schultz (Sean Dabney) is a recently divorced carpenter, Lauren (Chloe Jung) is a student hoping to be cast in her high school production of West Side Story. James (Jon Protas) is Marty’s husband.
The initial meeting is as ordinary as you might expect: names announced, a couple of biographical facts exchanged, a few acting exercises designed to get the group to learn to listen to one another. Over the next six weeks, a romance or two creeps in, some family histories are revealed, insecurities leak slowly into the group. And in time at least one secret (it turns out there are many) quietly explodes.
This experienced ensemble does well under the direction of J. Bailey Burcham in adhering to what is heralded as playwright Annie Baker’s signature: naturalism, manifested in dialogue that is styled in an everyday vernacular and delivery: long pauses, lines that overlap (reminiscent of film director Robert Altman’s movies), awkwardness in the conversations. And silence becomes a potent vehicle of communication.
This play resonated with me as it portrayed one of my continuing observations of life in the Upper Valley, or maybe just of . . . life. Scratch the surface of any stranger and you’ll find they hold amazing stories: mundane, tragic, joyful, surprising. If that sort of interaction appeals to you (I, for one, positively seek it out), you will appreciate this play, which replicates another of my observations: that while sometimes people’s stories emerge whole and well-rehearsed, more often they emerge bit by halting bit, over time and with repeated contact.
Baker’s play won an Obie for Best New American Play in 2010. Critics loved it for its realism and its quiet pace. A few disliked it for . . . its realism and its quiet pace. The story is told through a series of short vignettes and there were times when I, along with some of the aforementioned critics, wish the playwright would have let the audience linger a little longer with these characters. That is but a minor quibble with an otherwise well-acted, thoughtful and beautifully staged production.
A final note: there is something “meta” and particularly charming about seeing this play about community theater staged at the small Parish Players Eclipse Grange Theater. The staging in the round adds to a sense of authenticity, as if you might actually have tiptoed into a community theater’s acting class run by the Parish Players, with a handful of your Upper Valley neighbors sprawled on the floor in the first scene. Thetford, like all of our small UV towns, could easily compare to the fictional Shirley, Vermont. (Shirley, by the way, is a kind of self-created muse for Baker, who has used it as the locale for four of her plays.)
“Circle Mirror Transformation” is in production of Parish Players on June 11–21 at the Eclipse Grange Theatre in Thetford. For tickets ($15-$25) go to parishplayers.org.
Photo credits: Brandy Zhang
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On a different note: Theater on the high-wire without a net. I caught a performance of Valley Improv (previously profiled here) at Harvest Hill this past weekend. The definition of improv according to leader Ben Guaraldi “is the art and sport of creating theater on the spot, working with no script, set design, or props (but often with audience suggestions) to present narratives that can be hilarious, surprising, and even moving.” They were fearless, and funny. Up next is their All-Fem Show at Sawtooth in Hanover NH on June 24. Info here.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, Next Avenue, Image Magazine, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.