Theater Review: ‘Circle Mirror Transformation’
An acting class slows to a halt at Dobama Theatre
At first blush, the thought of building a play around four people in an acting class seems like it has potential. After all, the exercises some acting teachers put their charges through can be silly, embarrassing and revealing. But as performed at Dobama Theatre, Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker turns out to be a long and only fitfully interesting journey. Hampered by cardboard characters and a pacing that makes soil erosion look snappy, the production slowly sinks under its own weight. Set in a dance rehearsal studio in some small Vermont town, four students have signed up to take a six-week acting class from Marty, a middle-aged woman. One of the pupils is her husband James, who we may assume was shanghaied into the class to …
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