There is no doubt that the events of 2025 and already the first two months of 2026 have provided an unfortunate wealth of materials for playwrights to mine from. But with the world premiere of The Circle at Greenway Court Theatre, the clock rewinds back to July 2016 in Texas set during the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter protests that occurred immediately after the murder of Philando Castile.
Yet despite this, Stacey Martino Rivera‘s play has severely misguided intentions in possibly one of the longest, most confusing, overly written, acted, and directed plays I have ever seen.
Three generations of Medina’s and Mahoney’s come together over one absurd weekend in Texas. Chaos ensues, echoing the brutality of the 2016 election season and the pain felt across the country.
Photo by Steve Moyer
Clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, one of the most glaring problems with The Circle is how extremely stuffy and dragged out it is with numerous storylines happening simultaneously while somehow having nothing to do with the historical backdrop the play takes place in as the story is really about three generations of a white and Latino family and an inexplicably houseless MAGA-affiliated white man who has been kidnapped. By the end of the excessively long play, the message was basically “can’t we all just get along?” with the family making peace with the MAGA man and also bringing up a real-life moment where Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter protestors were hugging each other even though the core of the July 2016 BLM protests happened because Philando Castile was murdered by a police officer. Considering where MAGA is currently at and the majority still swearing allegiance to their spray tanned president, this comes off as incredibly out of touch and misguided as the issues are inherently systemic and not so much the need to kumbaya with your racist neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers.
Photo by Steve Moyer
The directing decision from D.W. Jacobs to have most of the characters yell a majority of their lines took an already meandering play and made it an unintentionally baffling experience that bordered on absurdity which resulted in a good amount of unintentional laughter. Out of the entire ensemble cast, Victoria Ratermanis fared the best in terms of being the most believable without resorting to melodrama or overacting. I couldn’t help but notice that three of the cast members are the real-life husband and daughters of the playwright (René, Ava, and Luna Rivera) and that this play is pretty much The Actors Studio project as not only was it developed through their studio but that the playwright and five of the actors are part of it as well. I bring these observations up as perhaps the very insular nature of this project is perhaps the reason why there wasn’t much of a critical feedback in terms of making significant revisions to the play.
Photo by Steve Moyer
Lastly, the tech elements leave much to be desired with many of the kinks that still need to be worked out, particularly a rogue television set that would just turn on randomly throughout the play and the actors having a tremendously difficult time turning it off. The projections that would be displayed in the course of the play offered quasi-profound sentences and questions which was more of a distraction than offering any real value.
I wish I could leave more positive critiques for this play but ultimately, the problems started with the script that needed serious trimming and restructuring and everything else that spiraled out from there. The Circle will continue to play on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. until February 22, 2026, with the exception of Saturday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day, when the theatre will be dark. For further information about the play and to buy tickets online, please visit https://greenwaycourttheatre.org Tickets can also be purchased by E-mailing boxoffice@greenwayartsalliance.org or calling the Greenway Court Theatre at 323-655-7679.
