Lovers Spar In The Circle

A review of The Circle by 77 Square's Lindsay Christians. Does history repeat itself? The answer is always yes, and it is always no. As one character, educated too well by life, remarks at the end of 'The Circle,' 'no circumstances are quite the same.' W. Somerset Maugham's cynicism and perceptiveness about the human animal unfold quietly in 'The Circle,' his 1921 comedy currently running at American Players Theatre in Spring Green. James Bohnen directs a sharp, lively production, populated by socialites who know more than they say and fight to keep up appearances. The history that circles back on these well-to-do English types hinges on two love triangles. Three decades earlier, Lady Kitty left her affable, predictable husband Clive for the exciting, wealthy Lord Porteous, who himself left a promising position in Parliament. Now, Clive and Kitty's daughter-in-law is preparing to do the same. Elizabeth, 25, plans to abandon her indifferent husband Arnold to his politics and 'period' furniture for another man and an adventurous life in Malaysia. Looking at Arnold, it's quite clear why his wife (Susan Shunk) wants to decamp for parts tropical. Paul Hurley plays the young politician with a distracted, self-absorbed air. One gets the sense Elizabeth merely fits with her surroundings, like a prized chair. By contrast, the rival, played by Marcus Truschinski, is the picture of love-struck awkwardness. Endearingly blunt and nervous, Teddie wonders aloud why romance is so much harder than making a business deal. 'I feel it's all so tremendously serious and I think we ought to keep emotion out of it,' he says, his voice betraying him. For her part, Shunk embraces her character's pluck, passion and indecisiveness so well, we truly don't know until the last moments which man she'll chose. Looking on as this crisis unfolds is Tracy Michelle Arnold's overly-rouged Lady Kitty, at once delicate and worldly. Porteous (James Ridge) spends most of the play in a bad temper, complaining about everything from bridge techniques to his ill-fitting false teeth. They're like an old married couple, blaming one another for their lost potential, much to the delight of Kitty's ex (played by Brian Mani). As Clive, Mani is self-satisfied and relaxed, pragmatic like some of the characters he plays in Shaw ('Widowers' Houses' from 2008 comes to mind). He also delivers some of the play's funniest lines. 'I love old wine, old friends and old books, but I like young women,' Clive explains when Kitty offers to return to him. Kitty calls her former husband a 'wicked old man' and Mani deadpans, 'that's what I told you.' Bohnen leads the action with a sure hand, revealing depth in the smallest gestures. Kitty thrills that someone has found her dropped lipstick, but doesn't look at the finder long enough to realize that he's her former husband. Bohnen also keeps the emotion from seeming too broad, even when the script could easily lend itself to caricature. (One example: Arnold's obsession with interior design and the fact that he and Elizabeth don't yet have a child could be read in an entirely different way.) A few quirks of the script throw things off - an unnecessary character played by Ally Carey who speaks about 10 lines, and an early intermission after only 30 minutes. 'The Circle' feels like a latter-day 'Doll's House' toward the end, rehashing Ibsen's societal condemnation with lines like 'I must do what my whole self yearns for.' But all told, 'The Circle' revolves quite beautifully, a thoroughly entertaining rotation on the APT stage.