Circle Mirror Transformation

by Annie Baker

Thanks, you guys. I think this was a really, really great start.

Five lost people come together at a community centre class to try and find some meaning in their lives. Counting to ten can be harder than you think. Over six tangled weeks their lives become knotted together in this tender and funny play.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, Read For School

88 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

Baker grew up in Amherst, Mass., and graduated from the Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She earned her MFA from Brooklyn College.

Her play Body Awareness was staged off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theater Company in May and June 2008. The play featured JoBeth Williams and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Circle Mirror Transformation premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in October 2009 and received Obie Awards for Best New American Play and Performance, Ensemble. Her play The Aliens, which premiered off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in April 2010, was a finalist for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and shared the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play with Circle Mirror Transformation.

Baker's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya premiered at the Soho Repertory Theatre in June 2012 and was called a "funky, fresh new production" by a New York Times reviewer. Her play The Flick premiered at Playwrights Horizons in March 2013. A New York Times reviewer wrote, "Ms. Baker, one of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade, writes with tenderness and keen insight." The play received the Obie Award for Playwriting in 2013.

Baker teaches in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. She was one of seven playwrights selected to participate in the 2008 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. In 2011 she was named a Fellow of United States Artists.

Reviews

[Lui Vega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might only read Annie Baker going 4ward

[صان · Rating 5 out of 5]

اَنی بیکر یه نویسنده ناتورالیسته. ینی دقیقن رفتار آدما رو نشون می‌ده. توی حرف زدن من‌من می‌کنن و مکث دارن، موقعیتا عجیب‌غریب نیستن و خیلی صمیمی و در عین حال عمیقن. تاحالا فقط یکی از کارهاش ترجمه شده به اسم فلیک توسط نشر یکشنبه (جلدسبز رنگ)

این یکی رو انگلیسی‌ش رو من خودندم (اگه کسی خواست می‌تونم بدم بهش) و درباره گروهی بود که طی شش هفته کلاس تئاتری رو می‌گذرونن. معمولی شروع می‌شه و مث زندگی مي‌مونه و بعد کم‌کم ماجراهایی بین آدم‌هاش پیش میاد و در نهایت خیلی خیلی خوب و زیبا تموم می‌شه.

در کل: ساده و زیبا!

[Jyotsna Hariharan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm trying to write a play right now about misfits in a comedy club and this play was recommended for inspiration. This is my favorite kind of play, in that it has so many elements that intrigue me and attract me to theatre -naturalism, unexpected humour, characters spilling innermost thoughts and fears when they don't even realize they're doing it, a meta -commentary (in this case, about theatre itself and about the 'roles' we play and how 'all the world's a stage") and one character just wondering what the hell is going on.

But in trying so hard to be true and realistic, I think the play actually lost out on dramatic action or theatricality. And here's the thing - in real life or onstage - heightened theatricality and drama help us understand people faster and better. Without the theatricality, it takes longer to understand and invest in people - just like real life.

Which is my main and only issue with this piece. It truly succeeded in mirroring life - but almost too well. In its uber-realism, we take a much longer time to get onboard and it ends just when we're beginning to care for the characters. In this, it feels like a vignette, something cut short prematurely before it could play out fully. A little anticlimactic as a full length play.

But all said, this is an amazing piece to read, for anyone attempting to write realism.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viscerally awkward. This was painful. 5 stars.

[Ryan Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

New review for the reread. Every time I read this I just feel so much rise inside of me. Absolutely my favorite contemporary play and one of my favorite pieces of writing, period!

[aud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly an interesting play!! I’m excited to talk about it in class :)

[Shelby (Grace with Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting play. It has the story of five people in a drama class together, and it looks at their six weeks together in the summer time as a class. It was so interesting to see all these drama games portrayed in the script. I do think this is a play that was meant to be seen and not read, but I found it interesting nonetheless and highly recommend it to those who are interested in the theater and plays!

[Madeline Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play reminds me of this one time my acting professor asked us to write down the story of our first kiss anonymously and then we were supposed to perform these stories as monologues after we drew them out of a hat. We didn’t do that but if we ended up doing that exercise then I would have really related to this play.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like that moment in the last Narnia where they’re all dead and in heaven looking out at the places and people they’ve been. Is that a real scene or am I imagining it? Either way, there are scenes of prefect estrangement and retrospection in this play.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

If the difference between your script and a parody of your script is a pause that last 2.394 seconds (instead of 2.396 seconds), it's time to write a second draft

[jamiereads92 · Rating 3 out of 5]

this play was wacky!!!!! the “um”s and awkward silences make for really believable and awkward banter which works since they’re in an acting class but the relationships of the characters is also crazy and i know it takes place over a few weeks but that seems too short for all these peoples lives to become intertwined. really enjoyed reading this in class tho. it’s interesting to consider the ethics and morals of some teachers and what they aim to do and how they protect (or don’t protect) their students

[Piper Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy balls I loved this play so much. I haven’t read any of Baker’s other plays but I really liked this one. I’m not a huge fan of dialogue-reliant shows but something about the way Baker organized it by labeling the weeks made it so entertaining and interesting. I loved the concept of people introducing themselves and each other and the whole Theresa/Shultz, James/Marty dynamics. Highly recommend!!

[JohnMichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excited to start working on this next week as Schultz!

[daania tahir]

God I loved this. Forreal. UGH. Such improv vibes.

[nay · Rating 5 out of 5]

circle mirror transformation fan club 4ever

[Wiley June · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s giving childrens shakespeare theater

[E.L. Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having now both read and seen this show, I really think that while the device of acting exercises to explore who the characters are is a really interesting one, the show is just too long. I think this would be a stronger story- especially as an audience member- as a one act.

[Rachel Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a damn producible play! It's fun to read older Annie Baker after seeing all her recent works. In the spirit of life repeating.... utterly fascinating to see where some of her throughlines began. Also, I spent a summer doing exactly this, so it really hit home.

This is probably one of my favorite plays of hers, even if only for the last pages...

[Michael Gravante · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing about theatre is that you're supposed to see it live. You feel a little detached when you read a play and you don't see it happening right in front of you. You can try to imagine it, but it is not the same as being in the audience and seeing this all play out before you. If you just read the words of a play, you're getting only a small part of the theatre experience. You don't get see the costumes, the staging and movement, the scenery. You also try to imagine the characters, but they're not real; the people playing them onstage are. From reading Circle Mirror Transformation, I can see how this can be really compelling and fun to watch, but reading it on a page is hard, especially when a lot of the things they do in this play are very active.

Nevertheless, I love this play. It's deep and sad, but also funny and uplifting. It has good characters, who all feel broken and use an adult creative drama class to heal themselves. You can tell that Annie Baker really wants her characters to be seen as people who are trying, not people who are only seen as good guys or bad guys. They are trying to succeed at life and love. Additionally, the games that they play are almost exactly the same as the ones we play in rehearsals. (I'm a theatre person, if you couldn't already tell. :D)

I would love to see a live production of this someday. But who knows what the future holds?

[Jasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quietly tugs you into a very naturalistic world, then surprises you with its innate theatricality. Its power is in its slow, subtle pacing and the myriad tiny but affecting ways in which character is revealed. Heartbreaking and hopeful.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slighter than I thought it would be, but overall charming with an excellent use of theater game structure as character revelation. The ending makes it work for me.

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I'd have to see this one. The writing style was not my taste.

[Will Ginn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie Baker's play, Circle Mirror Transformation, is the best piece of contemporary drama that I have read since discovering the works of Sarah Ruhl in college. And I say that with a sense of delighted surprise because it was not the first Baler piece that I have read. Last summer, I read her critically acclaimed play, The Flick, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. Although I thought that it was a wonderful piece to read about the quotidian doldrums of life, specifically for those who find themselves in economically precarious situations like working at a movie theater to make ends meet, it was not one of my favorite plays necessarily. Moreover, I couldn't imagine a successful staging of that piece outside of the confines of a bigger city that has a dedicated straight play audience: New York or Chicago. For example, in New York, the play, which is long to begin with, was well over three hours, and apparently it contained long stretches of the actors viewing the films in the movie theater at which they work in silence. While I respect what Baker might be doing in that work, it is not me cup of tea.

By contrast, Circle Mirror Transformation is a love letter to the theater. And not the big business, commercial side of theater, but the more grassroots, amateur, and community form of theater, which the show suggests is perhaps even more powerful and transformational. Specifically, it centers on a group of five people participating in a "adult creative drama" class at a local community center in the Vermont. Obviously, it is an intimate class, and its important to note that the group of five includes Marty, the free-spirited and endearing teacher of the class, and her husband, James, an equally spirited and old hippie turned yuppie, who attends the class to genuinely support his wife in her creative endeavors. The other three characters are an assorted lot: there is Shultz, the 50's something sincere but lonely divorcee, Teresa, the late 30's something woman who has had a history of bad relationships, and Lauren, an enigmatic teenager who suffers from a tough home life. What seems like the oddest assemblage of people turns into a group that shares such a powerful theatrical kinship, even though you know that the kinship is limited to the confines of the class.

Perhaps what I love most about his play is that it neither has a lot of plot, nor exposition. Instead of staging a play, Baker has her characters playing the most elementary of theater games in a way that makes you wonder why and to what purpose in the first few pages. These theater games, however, promote improve, risk-taking, self-reflection, teambuilding, and creativity, all virtues and skills that pour over into the characters' actual lives in different ways. What follows, then, in the play is that both in and out of class each of the characters plumbs the depths of their inner self while taking more forward outward risks as well. Transformation, as the show's title suggests, ensues some of which is positive and your root for, some of which is heart-breaking and that which you never see coming. All in all, it is a wonderful, producible play. While less of a play that a director wants to direct, it is a work in which every actor wants to be cast.

[Gracie Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is unlike any play you've ever read before. Five people, one improv class in Shirley, Vermont. No matter who you are, you will not regret reading this. Once you start reading, you will develop a connection with almost all of the characters. This is because these aren't just random characters; These people are you and I. They deal with love, heartbreak, success and failure. If you choose to dive into this world of improvisation and interaction, you will soon realize that this is simply a play about reality. It shows you, the reader, that everybody is dealing with something and you are not alone. It just goes about teaching this life lesson in a very interesting way. The transitions, the dialogue and the blocking all have a very crucial role in getting the message across and making the story flow. I would highly suggest anyone and everyone to take a look at script. If you're into reading things that really make you stop and think, then this is perfect for you! Once you pick up this play, you will truly undergo a transformation.

[JackWilliamRtF · Rating 4 out of 5]

alright i understand that this isn't everyone's favorite annie baker but there was an extended period of time where i would have called this my favorite play. i then made the mistake of reading it in 2020 when i was at my most disillusioned with theatre and was like why did i ever like this play, who is this for, a bunch of people flop around silently in a room until we all get to go home. coOoOol. reading it again on the plane to houston, i rediscovered what it was that attracted me to this play in the first place. it feels exceedingly rare that you get a play with characters that demand such emotional depth from its actors, where even a single person biffing their assignment makes the entire production fall apart. circle mirror lives and thrives in its specificity, in the tiny pieces of conflict that are generated from even the smallest interactions that can spiral into life changing events. i wish this play was produced more often; i could see a hundred productions without getting sick of it.

4.25/5

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

just like with how THE ALIENS seems like a precursor to THE FLICK, this definitely feels like a sadder precursor to THE ANTIPODES but with a clearer setting and a grounding in realism that seems similar to THE ALIENS. i'd say this is maybe the annie baker play that i've connected with least emotionally but there are still moments that are really lovely, like i loved all the vignettes of people telling stories as other people in the play, especially the one where theresa is voicing james's story. i could have seen this during undergrad because i vaguely remember this was put on by my school's theater program but i worry that if i had then i would have had annie baker preemptively ruined for me lol. because why would you have a bunch of teens/20-somethings put on this play. of all the annie baker plays. like i get that there are more characters but THE ALIENS and THE FLICK are right there.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this funny yet realistic play about people. Marty is teaching a very small community theater class in a small town. Her pupils include her husband, a older divorced man, a pretty and single 35 year old woman, and a 16 year old girl that just wants to get the part of Maria in her high school production of West Side Story. Marty basically has them play a bunch of improv games with hilarious and awkward results.

As the play progresses we get a ton of insight into these people. The interactions between the characters are fascinating and feel real. I absolutely loved the ending which pulled in the title and one of the improv games, it just worked together nicely and elevated this comedy into something more than satire.

[Lukas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would really love to see a stage production of this play. Pauses are so important in this play because I agree with Baker: this play would be a satire. But each little vignette is full of life that kinda places you where the actors in the play are at...they're waiting to discover something. I am on an Annie Baker kick, and she seems to be great at capturing naturalist elements in her play. I think my favorite part of the play is the ending....I would want to see this show just to see the ending.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredible! less Idea-centric than body awareness, but baker’s character work is just as phenomenal. individuality subtly revealing itself by simply letting different people interact. the profundity/poetry of the mundane, the artistic merit of Regular People. the way it reveals beauty and truth through obfuscation is nothing short of brilliant. thematic resonance extracted from acting exercises, sincerely engaging with embarrassing expression of emotion leads to transcendence. so many moments nearly moved me to tears,,,people are amazing…

[Mae Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The transformative power of time and honesty, and watching all of that be harvested in the setting of an acting studio, which is all too real for me. Time is going to keep pushing, so you can either change with it or get swallowed whole. Clever choice for scenes to all remain the same until packing a proper punch right at the very end. It seems normal with important revelations all leading up until that final jab at the end. This play leaves you feeling transformed.