Annie Baker’s Obie Award-winning “Circle Mirror Transformation” is the latest in a line of successes for the decorated 37-year-old playwright.

The premise is deceptively simple: five strangers of all ages and walks of life come together during an eight-week adult drama course and slowly grow to know each other and uncover each other’s secrets.

However, Baker’s subtle writing and the skillful performances of the actors at Omaha’s Bluebarn Theatre transform what could be a mundane observational piece into a deeply poignant narrative about relating to others and how we all sometimes find ourselves as actors in this world.

Featuring a tight cast of only five actors, the Bluebarn Theatre’s rendition of “Circle Mirror Transformation” still managed to showcase both drama veterans and fresh faces. Susan Baer Collins, who plays the role of the teacher, Marty, has had a decorated career in theater for more than 27 years.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Caroline Friend, a high school senior who plays the youngest student in the class named Lauren, is just beginning her career on stage. “Circle Mirror Transformation” was her first performance at the Bluebarn Theatre.

What immediately sets this show apart is that it carries a different cadence than most plays. Scenes are short snippets of interaction, rarely exceeding a few minutes in length.

The play’s dialogue also stands out as being very lifelike. The actors remarked that stammers, bungled sentences and jokes that fall flat are all written into the script with particular detail.

According to Nils Haaland, the co-founder of the Bluebarn Theatre who plays the role of a recently divorced man named Shultz, the first cast of the play worked with Annie Baker and improvised quite a bit.

Their mannerisms soon became incorporated into the script itself. As such, the characters end up coming off as very genuine and very clearly defined.

However, rather than finding such specifics in the script to narrow the freedom of the actor, Ashley Kobza, who plays a young woman named Teresa in the middle of a love triangle, believes that such a human script gives actors the chance to breath real life and individuality into the characters.

“The play is the bones, the acting is the muscle,” Kobza said, “You can’t help but bring yourself into it.”

Collins agreed. “You find yourself relating to the emotions these characters go through. You find yourself seeing a little bit of yourself in all of them.”

“Circle Mirror Transformation” is a play that thrives on and explores this theme of seeing yourself in others. As the weeks go by in the drama class and more and more intimate secrets about each of the students come to life, they come to the realization that many of them have painful experiences in common.

In the climax, each character is made to write down a secret they have never told anyone, and then those secrets are read off anonymously to the whole group. Both the actors and the audience come to the startling realization that each of the secrets could apply to many or all of the students.

Baker is a playwright who is not afraid of brushing her fingers against the fourth wall. Several times the characters comment “We’re acting!” in a way that teases that they might be aware that not only are they drama students within the fabric of the story, but that they are aware that they are characters played by actors as well.

Not only that, but both Baker’s instructions within the script of the play and the efforts of the Bluebarn Theatre’s sound engineering team work together to create a cohesive experience that blurs the line between theater and reality.

From the moment one enters the lobby and heads to the box office, they become aware of mood-setting music playing in the background.

As you take your seat and the play begins, the music does not stop, but rather turns seamlessly into the background of the opening scene.

When a character answers a ringing cell phone, the ringtone is carefully broadcast from the stage rather than through the sound system to reinforce the idea that you are a fly on the wall watching a drama class rather than a patron attending a play.

Long, natural pauses break up the dialogue, acting as just one more way in which “Circle Mirror Transformation” creates characters that are read as real people, acting their real lives and facing their real problems.

Haaland spoke of the powerful aspect of reality within the play. “This was probably one of the most vulnerable plays I have ever done,” Haaland said.