Constellations: Theatre Review

Constellations is a 70 minute long, one-act play by Nick Payne. It features just two characters, and explores their relationship over time – in multiple parallel worlds. Here’s my Constellations theatre review.

Overview of Constellations – the play

Constellations, a play by Nick Payne, is an enjoyable and thought-provoking play. It’s only 70 minutes long, in just one act, but it’s a memorable performance. My Constellations theatre review will give some plot spoilers – but you can still enjoy the show even if you know some of the plot.

The play follows two characters. Roland is a bee keeper, and Marianne is an astrophysicist working at a university. The play starts with them meeting at a barbecue. And then it cuts to various key moments in their relationship – them getting together, affairs, then meeting again and rekindling their romance. The play also deal with some more serious themes as well, when it covers Mary’s cancer diagnosis, and their discussions about her prognosis and assisted dying.

The multiverse

However, the play isn’t just a linear story of two people meeting, falling in love, and then one of them dying. Early on in the performance, the two characters discuss the multiverse theory – the idea that there are countless parallel worlds, and for every decision we make in this world, there’s another world that exists where we made another decision.

And so, throughout the play, we often see the same scene multiple times, in difference universes. There can be some similarities in the scenes, but sometimes the scene is different – because one character chose to react in a different way in a different world, so then the scene is different. For example, the first time we see the scene the two characters might be talking calmly. But in the next take, one of them reacts angrily and the conversation goes completely differently.

The play also moves around time as well, because we see scenes from Marianne’s illness at the end interspersed with the ‘now’ scenes. So we know that there’s an ending where Marianne is ill – but then the play jumps back to show us the relationship that led to them getting to that point.

What I liked about Constellations

I love the concept of the multiverse and parallel worlds, and the idea that there are other worlds where we’re all living with different decisions having been made. So I really liked that this play explored that concept more. I’m a massive over-thinker about any decisions in life, especially big decisions. So I often wonder what my life would look like if I’d made different decisions in the past. This play allows you to see what Mary and Roland’s lives would have looked like with different decisions.

I thought the acting was brilliant. I saw a production of this play at the Barn Theatre, Cirencester in 2024 and thought both actors were great. There was great chemistry between the actors and no one slipped up on any lines at all. It’s an intense 70 minutes for both actors, but I thought they did brilliantly.

I really liked both characters as well. They were both very realistic, believable characters. And it was believable that they’d be attracted to each other. Roland, the bee keeper, was a kind, gentle character who seemed like a genuinely nice person. Marianne, the theoretical physicist, was more feisty, and fun. I could see how both of these characters would bring out the best in each other. Roland benefitted from Marianne’s fun and excitement, while Marianne benefitted from Roland’s steady dependable nature and kindness. The two characters were portrayed really well. And I liked how the bee-keeping and honey was brought into quite a few scenes!

What I wasn’t so sure about

Confusion

My main criticism of the play is that it was a little bit confusing. The jumps between the same scene in a parallel universe were signalled only by a flash of light and slight noise. At first, I found it a bit confusing about why we were hearing almost exactly the same scene again.

The ‘future’ scenes, where Marianne is ill, were signalled by a blue lighting rather than the more yellow lighting of the ‘present’. Again, this sort of made sense, but was a bit confusing. There was no set or costume changes throughout the whole play, which I liked, but it meant that there wasn’t much to help the audience follow along. I found the play ok to follow as long as I didn’t overthink it too much, but it could have been made clearer for the audience.

Similar parallel worlds

The other main criticism I have is that the parallel worlds introduced in this play were all very similar. In some scenes, we’d see the same set of dialogue 3 times and only small differences between the 3 times. The biggest difference was in the scene about affairs – in two versions of this scene she was saying she’d had an affair, and in one version he said he’d had an affair. I think I’d have liked the play to explore the idea that some parallel worlds might be vastly different.

I agree that some parallel worlds might look very similar to this one, and it might just be a slightly different take on the same conversation. But I also think that some parallel worlds might be hugely different. For example, in one parallel world, maybe neither of them chose to have an affair? Or maybe in one world, Roland hadn’t turned up to the barbeque at the beginning so the two never met? I completely understand that a 70 minute play absolutely cannot explore every parallel world possible. But I would have liked the play to have explored some of the big differences a bit more, rather than just the same conversation with slightly different emphasis on different words, or slightly different reactions within the same conversation.

Difficult themes

I also wasn’t fully prepared for the difficult themes this play would explore. I’d read that the play explores the theme of assisted dying – but it was done a lot more emotionally than I was prepared for. Because there were only two characters, and you felt like you got to know them in the play, it was difficult to watch the scenes where they discuss her dying. I think that’s probably partly due to my own personal experiences, and some things I’d been dealing with in the months leading up to seeing the play. The themes of cancer, cancer treatment and dying were big themes in my life at that time, so I was probably more sensitive to watching these themes in a play. But I left the theatre feeling a lot more depressed than I was expecting to.

Would I recommend the play Constellations

Overall, my Constellations theatre review is positive. I enjoyed this play, so I’d recommend seeing it. It was an enjoyable 70 minutes, even if it was slightly confusing and depressing.