Circle Mirror Transformation, Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1, 12 Jul-7 Sep

 

We observe a small class in the middle of the US doing a six-week drama course, consisting entirely of drama exercises- we can tell it's not that successful as the four students include the co-ordinator's husband as a ring-in - and slowly we get insight into them through small moments. Annie Baker's play is precise and builds from the smallest parts - you may think nothing has happened, then suddenly you realise how much you know and have warmed to these people over the course of watching them struggling - through a small view we see the bigger world that these characters bring with them into the class and where they may take it afterwards. 

Rebecca Gibney and Cameron Daddo as the husband-and-wife team may feel like stunt casting from the outside but both absorb well into their characters - Gibney having the right slightly-smug, hippyish vibe, satisfied that her program can help the group even as her exercises wander closer to misguided psychological experimentations, and Daddo as the dropout lawyer who's realising maybe his rebellions never really set him up for the family connections that he craves. Solid also are Nicholas Brown as a lovelorn carpenter clearly looking for a connection, Ahunim Abebe as the resistant teen looking for something more substantial than this class appears to be shows a gentle warming as the time proceeds, and Jessie Lawrence as the somewhat flamboyant Theresa who realises just how much she needs to bring herself back in. 

In a moment like now when all the views from America are huge and impactful, something this small and human-scaled may feel underwhelming - but it's exactly when we need something on a personal scale . Annie Baker's a master of finding truth in small surprising moments and in making lived-in worlds for her characters, and it's the kind of thing that can easily be overlooked but shouldn't be.