Five people lie on their back counting to 10, each saying a number one by one. When two people say the same number simultaneously, an older woman (Amanda Ehrmann ’18) tells them to “start again.” They do. This was the beginning of “Circle Mirror Transformation,” a play directed by Kaelan Lynch ’17, put on by Free Play Cooperative from Friday through Sunday in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater this past weekend.

“Circle Mirror Transformation,” originally written by Annie Baker in 2009, tells a story of five students all participating in a six-week drama class at a local community center. The class is run by Marty (Ehrmann), a warm and kind older woman. The “students” in her class are an atypical group. The class consists of James (Otis Fuqua ’19), Marty’s husband; Theresa (Morgan Winters ’16), a former actress; Schultz (Abram Foster ’19), a carpenter who makes unique chairs; and Lauren (Jessica Spierer ’18), a rising high school junior and aspiring actress.

This play was unusual in that it was not very fluid. Rather than showing us the entirety of the six weeks, this show was performed as a series of acting exercises and the occasional conversations between classmates. The only way time was told was with a white board in the corner stating what week of the class it was. Sometimes the blackouts between the segments seemed long and unnecessary, but in fact they were extremely purposeful. In Lynch’s director's note, he states that there are an “unusual amount of pauses and silences in this show” but that “every silence is intentional.” These blackouts and silences gave the audience a chance to digest, to take in what the characters were saying and to process how the acting exercises were beneficial. Not only that, but in a more typical play, there can be a lot of unnecessary information to keep the play moving along. “Circle Mirror” didn’t really have any of that. Because the show was so choppy, a lot of the extra information was cut out, which allowed the actors to really develop their characters.

One of the most poignant parts of the show was when Marty had her students write their secrets anonymously on scraps of paper, and then each person would randomly choose a secret to be read out loud to the group. Although the secrets were anonymous, because each actor had been so consistent in their portrayal of their characters, it was easy to see whose secret was whose. For instance, Theresa’s secret is that she feels everything she does was in fear of being alone. Throughout the show she had been grappling with lingering issues with her ex-boyfriend and a short fling with Schultz. There was also the secret that someone is secretly in love with Theresa. It’s very easy to think that it was Schultz’s secret based on their prior relationship and his actions shortly afterwards. However one finds themselves believing it was James’ secret. Throughout the show, James and Theresa slowly warmed up to each other, and there was a conversation where it seemed as though James was developing feelings for Theresa because of Fuqua’s characterization of James.

The ending of the show was one of its strongest moments. In the last exercise, Marty has Schultz and Lauren pretend they run into each other 10 years in the future. This starts out as superficial small talk about where they live and what they do, but as the scene progressed, it was clear that they weren’t in the community center anymore. Rather, they actually were meeting each other ten years later. As they talked, they admitted that they had both enjoyed each other’s presence all along, and while there wasn’t complete resolution, the show ended with the audience getting a small glimpse into the students’ lives and becoming hopeful that everyone would eventually heal and be okay.