Stars explained: * A production of no real merit with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic which lifts theatre to another plane.
Half stars fall between the ratings

Pictures: Emily White   

Constellations

****

Constellations is a bold, brave production, proof positive that amateur theatre can take on challenging work - and win.

Written by Nick Payne, a British playwright, Constellations premiered in London in October 2009 before transferring to America and Canada. It explores love, friendship and Time.

It only lasts eighty minutes, but packs in more than most shows manage in twice that length. Its originality lies in its dialogue format, endlessly reprised, subtly altered, constantly repeated and nuanced as part of a conventional narrative.

If this sounds highbrow, it is. If you fear that it will not be accessible to mere mortals, fear not. It is accessible, playing out as an intellectual romcom. Payne’s debt to Tom Stoppard’s work and style is unmistakable, clever, but not archly so.

What is it about? Suppose that life exists in a multiverse - a set of parallel existences that contain infinitely different futures. The possibilities in our lives are . . . endless. Every possible event that could happen, does happen, in one universe or another. And if two lovers meet - are drawn together in every version of existence - every possible happy ending and heartbreak that could befall them, will.

Isobel Clinton as Marianne and Henry Revell as Roland

Marianne, a scientist, and Roland, a beekeeper, meet at a party. They hit it off and go for a drink . . .  or perhaps they don’t. They go home together, or maybe they go their separate ways. Perhaps Marianne is engaged to someone else, perhaps Roland is. Maybe she breaks his heart, maybe he breaks hers. Perhaps they come together and their love story can finally take root and grow, or perhaps it will be tragically cut short. Constellations, explores how even the smallest change in our lives can dramatically alter the course we take. It is a theme explored in Peter Howitt’s 1998 film Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah. It is an exploration of love in the multiverse, science, quantum theory, and infinite possibility for heartbreak and hope, where time doesn’t exist.

A young couple, Marianne and Roland, meet and meet again. Every universe gives a different version, a different look, a different feel to our protagonists. They spend a lifetime milling around each other, but not just in one life. Their lives collide and crash together in an infinite number of lifetimes. Each scene plays again and again, giving a glimpse of the decisions and choices being made in every variation before gently moving on to another point in time.

Nick Payne writes with depth interlaced with warmth and humour. Though you only see snapshots of Marianne and Roland’s lives it offers disarming intensity. The dizzying heights of young love, the lows of break up, the joys of a reunion and the gruelling finale. A celestial rollercoaster ride with the only chink being a less than assured foray into end of life suicide.

Director Ahmed Ali guides his performers with elegance. Presented as a two hander they collectively succeed in making a complex script coherent and manageable. The staging is simple, the only indulgence a glitter ball.

Isobel Clinton as Marianne, and Henry Revell as Roland, are omnipresent on stage wrestling with successive almost identical lines in a triumph of concentration and application. New thoughts and emotions are signaled by a flick of the lights, mood is established by ambient incidental music, both courtesy of Andy Wilkes.

This is a stellar production in the most modest of surroundings - a dazzling look at the endless possibilities of love and life, a vindication of Director Ali’s vision which plays for eighty minutes without interval. Constellations can be viewed until 21-02-26, no telescope required.

Gary Longden

16-02-26

Highbury Theatre Centre

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