CONSTELLATIONS by Nick Payne Jack Studio Theatre 14 - 17 May
'lingers in the mind ... invites contemplation, prompting questions about choice, chance, and the delicate threads that shape our lives' ★★★ ½
Nick Payne’s CONSTELLATIONS is a love story told through a prism of possibility. In this compact two-hander, cosmology and quantum theory meet the messiness of modern romance, as Marianne and Roland’s relationship unfolds across multiple parallel universes. Over the course of 70 minutes, we watch them meet, flirt, fall in and out of love, betray and lose each other - again and again, with only the subtlest of shifts altering their paths.
Director George Derry leans into the play’s intellectual ambition with a simple black box set. Hanging mirrors and hooks evoke infinite realities - reflections and repetitions reinforcing the show's central concept, while scene changes are marked only by clean lighting shifts, helping the audience track the multiverse resets.
The strength of the production lies in its restraint. With such a bold and cerebral structure, the temptation might be to overdo it. Instead, the staging allows the text and performances to speak for themselves. Freddy Williams brings warmth and sincerity to Roland, grounding the character in every universe, and his performance is particularly strong in the play’s more vulnerable moments. Costanza Pucci Di Montaltino’s performance as Marianne is uneven. She delivers the play’s lighter moments with confidence and good comedic timing, but her emotional beats are inconsistent, leaving Marianne feeling less fleshed out.
Though the actors deftly and admirably navigate the technical challenge of delivering near-identical lines with new inflections and intentions, the structure's repetition risks emotional dilution. The brilliance of Payne’s script lies in how form mirrors content - just as Marianne explains the multiverse theory, we see its lived emotional resonance: one small moment can shift everything. The fragility and randomness of love and life are laid bare in every alternate version.
This production isn’t one that will sweep you away with spectacle or grand emotion, but it lingers in the mind. It invites contemplation, prompting questions about choice, chance, and the delicate threads that shape our lives. Thoughtful and precise, it’s a quietly ambitious staging that honours the play’s intelligence - even if it doesn’t always land with full emotional force.
Box Office: https://brockleyjack.co.uk/jackstudio-entry/constellations/#toggle-id-1
Photo credit: Samuel Daltry.
