Constellations

Nick Payne's Constellations is a curious, engaging and powerful relationship piece, but more than that it is damn fine theatre!

A physicist and a bee keeper meet at a party (sounds like the lead for a joke) and we are drawn into their life, seemingly over and over again, same words but different emotions, same situation but different words, same decisions but different outcomes. And therein lies the core of this precious piece, as Marianne tries to explain, it may be that all possible outcomes, everything you have ever, or never, done, can co-exist in parallel worlds and what you (this particular you) experiences is just one path through all of these possibilities.

Part of Nick Payne's genius is to take these mind bending ideas and merge them with a simple enough tale of love and loss and get us to not only engage, but to understand and genuinely care about these characters. I have seen this play before but had forgotten how emotionally draining it can be and how the flashes of alternate, sometimes better and sometimes worse, outcomes are there for us to grasp at but, in the end, miss out on.

For the actors, this is a genuinely complex piece; repeating (or almost repeating) dialogue but finding completely different, yet relevant, emotions and interactions. Carrying multiple stories and relationships and taking us all along with them is a true piece of stage mastery. Joe Armstrong completely inhabits the role(s) of Roland with utter conviction whilst Loise Brealey's Marianne(s) has a fragility and humanity that engages us at once even if, at times, she seems a little less "present".

A couple of small points perhaps, Marianne's jumper is shorter than the one in the photo right and she seemed obsessed at times with pulling it down and in the blackouts I would prefer that the actors moved as the precursor to the next scene rather than as a full stop to the current one - the timing difference is little more than a heartbeat but this play is all about heart and I wanted the pace to be driven forward not stalled - but who am I to tell Michael Longhurst anything about direction when he has produced such an engaging piece ;-)  A brief word also about Tom Scutt's design (contains flashing lights) - don't be fooled by its visual simplicity, it really is extremely clever and provides a beautiful world for this play to inhabit.

Practically perfect in every way .... now, when will the amateur rights to this be available?!

p.s. One thing I did notice in particular; a huge difference between the Bristol and Broadway audiences. The Bristol audience laughed more, concentrated more and generally engaged a lot more with the play than the one we were part of on Broadway where people seemed to be there because they were told it was good rather than because they really wanted to see it .... certainly the people who sat around us seemed fairly detached and subdued despite the fabulous performances in front of them ...

p.p.s. I am not going to choose which I prefered, they were both fabulous, but Ruth Wilson's was probably the performance I shall remember best