Constellations

It is near on impossible to describe the plot of Nick Payne’s Constellations. The only clear identifiable feature is that there are two characters – Roland and Marianne - and that over the course of the play, their lives intersect innumerable times. They connect via infinite possibilities, sometimes with similar results, sometimes vastly different.

Roland (Kieran Tracey) is a beekeeper, whilst Marianne (Rhiannon Leach) is a scientist and lecturer surrounded by quantum multiverse theory. In each universe we are shown, this is the only constant position they contain. This is a love story that is parallel and intersecting on so many stratospheres.

I think Marianne sums it up better than anyone else could:

“But if every possible future exists, then the decisions we do and don't make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing. Imagine rolling a dice six thousand times.”

We witness numerous encounters across the course of their relationship; often the same scene is played out 6 times with varying degrees of emotional responses, in any number of parallel universes randomly assigned.

It was evident that director Justin Stephens spent a vast amount of time planning and workshopping the sheer number of repetitious scenes with Tracey and Leach. It is evident that they all worked tirelessly on ensuring that the patterns and performative responses were clear, non-linear (yet linear across some of the spheres we encountered), and entirely diverse. Heightened and controlled emotional responses are key to making this play work effectively. Overall they did a fantastic job; each audience member was engaged and invested in the characters until the bitter end.

Tracey was excellent as Roland. He was controlled and consistent in each repeated tableaux. His voice was strong and clearly suited to a strong-willed character. He easily jumped in and out of the different characterisations with ease, making each one clearly different for audience comprehension.

Leach was similarly well suited to Marianne. She was superb at smooth transitions between each tableau and also clearly defined the parameters (or lack of) for her character. She could unfortunately be a bit pitchy at times, especially when her character was most distressed. More work with Stephens was needed to control these moments.

Both actors did a tremendous job of keeping track of where they were in the script. Due to the nature of the vast amount of repetitious lines, there was a danger that cues and scenes could be missed or skipped over, but they didn’t miss a beat.

I’m confused as to why the play needed English accents. It would have just been as accessible (if not more so) if they spoke with their normal voices.

Movements were carefully timed and sensibly choreographed. The space was utilised well, especially for a small black box theatre. Transitions between tableaux were quite clunky in the beginning, but became much cleaner and sharper as the show progressed.

The use of lighting and projections was a wonder to watch. It intermingled with the universal paradoxical themes brilliantly. Stephens should be exceedingly proud of his work on the projection design, as well as Merinda Backway for her set design.

My only major gripe was the last section of projection. It was completely unnecessary and personally left me wholly underwhelmed after such a beautifully strong production and the infinite endings to the character progression.

Overall, an extremely strong production for RedFox3 and the 1812 Theatre’s second season of the year. The night I went was sold out, so make sure you book your tickets! Definitely a must see!

Penelope Thomas