THE CIRCLE

Issues of familia, cultura, and política come to a head over the course of one tumultuous weekend in Stacey Martino Romero’s powerful if overlong World Premiere dramedy The Circle, now playing at the Greenway Court Theatre.

It’s the summer of 2016 and tensions have been running high in Texas since five Dallas police officers were shot to death (and another nine injured) by a black Army vet enraged by the number of young African-American men killed by law enforcement officers gone wild.

 And tensions are equally high 275 miles south of Dallas at the Medina family home in San Antonio where matriarch Eva’s (Alma Martinez) mind and memories have been largely lost to Alzheimer’s, though at least she has her goddaughter  Mary Padrón (Jeanette Godoy) there to tend to her needs.

Younger son Ronnie (Lakin Valdez) hasn’t been home for years as he pursues a not terribly successful acting career in Hollywood accompanied by Molly (Victoria Ratermanis), his conflict resolution facilitator partner of fifteen years and the mother of their twelve-year-old daughter Ana (Luna Rivera).

 Older Medina son, recovering addict José (René Rivera), meanwhile, is doing his best to hold things together in San Antonio, though today he’s been up in Dallas joining protesters against police brutality (and hawking his “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us” t-shirts) as the same time MAGA supporters express decidedly different opinions on the matter.

Unfortunately for José, his truck just happened to run over the foot of one of said MAGA-hat-and-shirt-sporting Texans, though whether José’s decision to bring the drunk and disorderly Bud Ireton (Michael Brainard), whose once prosperous rice farm has gone bust in Obama-era America, back home with him rather than leave him intoxicated and injured in the street is a case of decency or stupidity remains to be seen.

All of this makes the arrival of Ronnie, a very pregnant Molly, her elderly mother Maeve Mahoney (Lisa Richards), and Ana not particularly well-timed, especially since José has taken it upon himself to gag and duct-tape Bud to Eva’s wheelchair and lock him in the closet while deciding upon the best way to deal with Bud’s threats to sic the police on him for assault and kidnapping.

Oh, and lest I forget, adding to the family chaos is Maeve’s insistence that her daughter and Ronnie finally tie the knot this weekend, something he accidentally promised to do at today’s funeral for Maeve’s husband/Molly’s father.

Talk about a recipe for disaster, though to playwright Rivera’s credit, there are plenty of laughs to be mined from the impossible situation José now finds himself in.

 Director D.W. Jacobs keeps things moving swiftly throughout The Circle’s two-and-a-half-hour running time, though I can’t help wishing trims had been made, including perhaps leaving the play’s introduction and epilogue (featuring Luna’s older sister Ava as Ana’s sixteen-year-old self) on the cutting floor and focusing on the events in “present” time.

 I also can’t help wishing The Circle had made its debut a few years ago and not in 2026, a year in which much of its ultimately hopeful message seems little more than a naïve pipe dream in the America we live in today.

That’s not to take away from the work being done on the Greenway Court stage, and despite the play’s length, I rarely felt my interest lagging, in large part because of the performances Jacobs has elicited from his cast cast, in particular from an on-fire (René) Rivera as a man who’s got decades of anger and resentment built up inside him and Martinez as a woman raging against an illness that has robbed her of her most precious memories, though not so much that she can’t spring back to commanding life in one of the play’s several climactic scenes. (More than once I thought The Circle was over, but it wasn’t.)

Reconfiguring Greenway Court seating to thrust-stage mode has the audience almost encircling scenic designer Tom Brown Medina family home set, an apt choice for a play entitled The Circle, and the contributions of designers W. Alejandro Melendez (lighting and projections), Carolyn Mazuca (costumes), and Germaine Franco (sound designer and original music) are equally topnotch.

The Circle is produced by the late C. Raul Espinoza, whom the production is in loving memory of, and Martinez. Jessica E. Williams is assistant director. Emma MacManus is associate lighting director and Grace Hlavacek is associate video designer.

Pam Noles is stage manager. Assistant stage manager Graciela Rodriguez is seen (or heard) briefly as Service Worker, Mari, Neighbor, and Tonantzin. Steve Moyer is publicist.

World Premiere plays are always to some degree works in progress, and though The Circle isn’t yet quite the play it could be, it is well worth a look-see for its unique take on the issues that divide us and for the powerhouse performances being delivered on the Greenway Court stage.

Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Blvd., Los Angeles.
www.greenwaycourttheatre.org
–Steven Stanley
January 30, 2026
Photos: Steve Moyer

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

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