Constellations, Nick Payne’s acclaimed parallel universe romcom/tragedy/drama, premiered in 2012. Eleven years and many many productions later, our cultural obsession with multiverses has only skyrocketed, and now Oxford Theatre Guild is offering their own spin on the story at the Old Fire Station - with dazzling results.
Constellations is told non-linearly, a two-hander in which countless potential relationships between unassuming beekeeper Roland (Nathan Golo) and jittery, gregarious string theorist Marianne (Claire Denton) are shown, with brief blackouts indicating universe shifts.
We open on several potential meet-cutes, as the two find themselves at a mutual friend’s barbeque. In one, he’s already married. In another, she is. In one, she’s drunk. In another, he’s nervous. And finally, in one, the stars align and the two share a connection.
Payne’s playful, poignant storytelling seems influenced by tragicomic noughties romances like 500 Days of Summer and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which also both played with pacing to conjure our experience of infatuation.
There’s a wealth of tender, wry observations of human interaction powering this script.
Having read the play, I can say, the script itself is sort of an emotional Rorschach test, the dialogue well-pitched but malleable, staccato and someone flat on the page. It’s up to the director and actors to breathe real life into the play, and here, everyone delivers beautifully.
A memorable example: in one briefly shown universe, Roland behaves violently towards Marianne. In this adaptation, a scene further on is clearly taking place in that universe as well, though the dialogue on its own would not necessarily convey this on its own.
It’s down to Golo’s and Denton’s mercurial switches in their body language, tone, and energy that we’re able to truly delineate the many worlds the characters inhabit. Even within the same storylines, the non-linear nature means the characters must constantly switch between different stages of familiarity. The structure also connects profoundly with how we actually remember our own romances - in sharp vignettes, not one steady march of development.
There’s a noticeable age gap between the actors, but this feels perfectly realistic because their performances feel so real, and un-archetypical. Their chemistry is powerful and singular. Constellations is clearly a play that rewards variations like this: in the 2021 revival, four sets of actors, including an older pair in Zoe Wanamaker and Peter Capaldi, and a gay pair of Russell Tovey and Omari Douglas, took up the helm, to great acclaim.
It’s also worth mentioning that in the entire, interval-less runtime, the actors do not leave the stage once. Other than a handful of props and a large painted box on stage, there is no set. The lighting is done in different colours for different scenes, though I couldn’t discern if there was a pattern to this.
One prominent universe within the plot takes the tale to a tragic place, and this is handled in a way that feels truthful but understated, the acting delicate. Colin Macnee, as the director, teases out a symphony of emotions here and conducts them shrewdly. This is truly a show wherein you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll cheer inside at the hopefulness of love. One of the best things I’ve seen in a long time.
