CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION fails to reach its potential @ Dobama
Watching a group of wannabe actors, all of whom have troubled lives, taking a class on how to become actors sounds like a strong plot idea with a potential for drama, revelation and even possible fun. That’s the situation at Dobama, which is presently staging Annie Baker’s CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION.
The Obie Award-winning play centers on an acting class being offered in a small Vermont town’s community center. Marty, the instructor, rather than using play scenes employs improvisational concepts to help the creative process. The techniques include both imaginative and absurd activities for the class of five, which includes a flirty former actress, a pouty 16-year-old, a divorced carpenter and Marty’s husband.
The students pose as trees, beds and baseball gloves. They create human statues portraying their families. They invent scenes using only the words goulash and ak-mak. They pretend to be one another and write dark secrets on scraps of paper and read them out loud. The New York Times called Baker’s play, “absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny.” Unfortunately, Dobama’s production is anything but absorbing and there is practically nothing funny going on. The problem is that the extremely slow pacing, black out after blackout, and lack of full blown interactions turn the evening into an exercise similar to watching paint dry… not much going on.
Not all of the problem is caused by director Juliette Regnier. She is given a script that is a series of 30-second to 5-minute scenes. Unfortunately, Regnier has inserted blackouts between the segments that are often as long, if not longer, than the scenes. Yes, maybe between the supposed week-long separations between classes a little more time is needed for costume changes, but, as is, the audience spends more time in the dark than they do in the light. Also there is too much introspection rather than out-and-out physical and verbal angst going on.
The cast is generally fine. But the blend between them falls short because Regnier doesn’t take advantage of the free form of the script, which would have allowed for their true quirkiness and the internal conflict and potential fun to come forth.
The role of Marty, the deeply troubled instructor who experiences night tremors due to an early life experience, is nicely developed on a surface level by Molly Cornwell, but the depth of her hurt isn’t always apparent.
Bob Ellis, portraying Marty’s quirky husband, James, needed a more troubled and bizarre tone so that the audience could understand his problematic personality.
Joe Milan is properly pathetic as Schultz, the recently divorced and lonely man looking for some physical connection. Again, a little more angst and desperateness would have fleshed out the underlying torture he is experiencing.
Leighann Niles DeLorenzo has the right spark as Theresa, the supposed New York actress who has returned to the small town to get away from her boyfriend. There is a deeper story behind that escape. DeLorenzo needed even more extremes of character portrayal to allow for insight into this troubled lady.
Allison Bencar as Lauren, the product of a troubled home, gave the illusion of the conflicted teen, but there was much below the surface that needed to come out.
Sounds like we need more drama? No, just clearer character development which would have led to more emotional and bizarre interplays between the personalities.
Mark Kopak’s clean line dance studio, complete with mirrors that could have been used more to allow the characters to really see each other, and the audience to see themselves in blurred visions of reality, would have helped. The word mirror is in the title for a reason.
CAPSULE JUDGMENT: CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION is a long sit. There are just too many long blackouts and a lack of playing off the author’s clear characters to get the full effect of the script.
PS… within the last several months Dobama has lost several of its historically important figures. We say a sad farewell to Peggy Buerkel and Everett Dodrill. Without their efforts and dramatic skills, Dobama would not be the fine theatre it is today.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roy Berko. Berko’s blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://RoyBerko.info. His reviews can also be found on NeOHIOpal and CoolCleveland.com.
Roy Berko, who is a life-long Clevelander, is a Renaissance man. Believing the line in Robert Frost’s poem “Road Not Taken,” each time he comes to a fork in the road, he has taken the path less traveled. He holds degrees, thought the doctorate from Kent State, University of Michigan and The Pennsylvania State University. His present roles, besides husband and grandfather, are professor, crisis counselor, author and entertainment reviewer… Read Roy Berko’s complete bio here
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From Cool Cleveland contributor Susan Schaul, who says the act of writing is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge lies in getting the pieces to fit together and make sense.
REVIEW: Pete Hamill Caps Writers Center Stage Season
Pete Hamill Caps Writers Center Stage Season
Writer Pete Hamill loves libraries, librarians, and writing. During his appearance at The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage, he spoke about his family, his creative journey, great writers and the writing process. He said, “Libraries help us to find who we are and how we fit into the world.” His mother, who raised seven children, introduced him to the library and he somehow learned to read just by being there.
Hamill is an accomplished journalist and essayist who covered wars and wrote for The New York Post, New York Newsday, Village Voice and Esquire for more than thirty years. He has completed nine novels and two collections of short stories, which include Snow in August and his memoir A Drinking Life. His latest novel, which he was signing last night, is Tabloid City. North River, his most recent novel, was published in 2007. His first novel, published in 1968, was A Killing of Christ. He spent many years writing news stories during the day and writing fiction at night after time with his family and a nap.
The evening was hosted by Sari Feldman, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. Cleveland State University President Dr. Ronald M. Berkman introduced the writer who took center stage at the Ohio Theater. The Series is presented by the library in partnership with the university. Each writer who participates in Center Stage works with CSU students, and Dr. Berkman remarked that what he finds most marvelous about Cleveland is “the commitment that Cleveland has for keeping the written and spoken word alive.”
Hamill was born in Brooklyn to Irish immigrants and he considers having been poor and being in the world before television to be a gift. He loved Terry and the Pirates, and at age 11, in 1946, he copied the pictures in those comic books. He eventually starting drawing his own comics but, after studying art, his love of reading lead him to journalism, which was self taught. He learned his craft in the graduate school of the newspaper business. His novels are character-driven and he sketches out the 3-act structure, but he likes the process of the story unfolding, and he gets out of the way to allow that to happen. He “writes to tell a story someone else might listen to.” He never thought about fame and fortune, he just wanted to be the best Peter Hamill that ever lived, and has been a happy man doing that.
Last evening’s talk by Pete Hamill ended on a note of hope for writers and libraries. Hamill does not believe journalism is in trouble, although newspapers might be. With all the ways we can read these days, our level of reading is likely to increase. He believes the internet offers hope. Books are here to stay and we will have many choices of how to read. Libraries will continue to be a catalyst for learning, living beyond our neighborhood, and encouraging people to tell their stories.
The Eighth Season of Writers Center Stage launches on Tue 9/20 with Elizabeth Strout. The five other writers (an increase over four writers this year) who will talk about their life, reading, and how they write are Michael Pollan, Billy Collins, Abraham Verghese, Anne Lamott and Colm Toibin. http://WritersCenterStage.org.
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Posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2011, in Claudia Taller, Commentary, Literary, News, Review | No Comments »