Some scenes are repeated five times with varying outcomes and altered moods, an endeavour that could easily resemble a rehearsal room exercise in the wrong hands. It doesn’t happen here, thanks to some very fine acting, though it is also testimony to Michael Longhurst’s direction that the play feels alive with ideas, action and fizz, but is balanced with stillness and depth. Changes of scenes (and time-frames) are sometimes indicated simply by a tonal inflection or change of stance. The story all but reveals its tragic ending early – we travel towards an untimely death – but its plot ingeniously keeps us guessing. Play of scenarios in love seeks to bemuse Beijing[1]". www.chinadaily.com.cn . Retrieved 2018-11-01. When Ptolemy conceived their patterns the stars were thought to be equidistant from the Earth; this model was developed from Aristotle's conception of crystalline spheres on which the stars (and planets) rotated around a central Earth. So, the idea of a relationship between groups of stars would have been a realistic assumption. The constellations in early cultures

Extinct takes to the stage with a smouldering Canada heatwave to bolster its argument. “I have,” Kiran Landa tells the audience in playwright April De Angelis’s monologue, “an hour to convert you to the cause of climate change”. It is an oddly ambiguous statement (are we for or against?), but of course we know what she means. I wish I thought she would succeed. The play follows Roland, a beekeeper, and Marianne, a physicist, through their romantic relationship. Marianne often waxes poetic about cosmology, quantum mechanics, string theory and the belief that there are multiple universes that pull people's lives in various directions. This is reflected in the play's structure as brief scenes are repeated, often with different outcomes. In November 2022 a production was staged at The Garage, Bangkok by the Bangkok Community Theatre, featuring Nicholas Burnham and Fiona Haque, directed by Danny Wall. The production took place at ‘The Garage’ in Bangkok, Thailand. In the same month, the play was also presented at The Pegg Studio in Bristol by Bristol Drama Society, featuring Elsa Cleaver, Andrew Graham, Honey Gawn-Hopkins & Lilly Walker. The production was directed by Holly Bancroft and Kate Hunter. In November 2012 Constellations was named the winner of the best play category at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, making the 29-year-old Payne the youngest winner of the award. [4] It also received several nominations at the 2013 Olivier Awards. [5] 2015 Broadway production [ edit ]

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Tovey has been out since he was 18, but that doesn’t mean he escaped the kind of shame that kept Pitt in the closet. He is, he says, part of a “whole generation of queer people who have section 28 in our blood”. The message of the Thatcher-era law against the “promotion of homosexuality” was: “You’re a pervert, there’s no place for you. Your only opportunities are to stay in the closet if you want success and happiness, but you won’t be happy anyway. And if you come out, you’re going to get Aids and no one’s going to love you.”

Just as the play makes the point that there is no singularity in the moment, there is no single play here either, despite both casts speaking the same lines. Atim and Jeremiah have the edge for comedy and pace. They conjure an instant chemistry and bring out every last laugh, as well as switching cleanly between moods. When the darkness comes, its contrast is all the more dramatic. There is less naturalism to Capaldi and Wanamaker’s performance, which feels more overtly theatrical at first, but they mellow and bring a meditative quality, both cuter and more melancholic. The story gathers different shades too, with the comparatively older pair of actors performing it. By contrast, Capaldi and Wanamaker start from the position of ringing a bit false. They’re far older than the characters, which isn’t a big deal, but it’s a dissonance amped up by Capaldi playing Roland as a sort of twitchy, gurning, eccentric uncle type. I can absolutely understand why he didn’t just go with the flow on Roland, but while often highly amusing, he just comes across as too weird for the eventually tragic relationship to be truly touching, especially because he somewhat drowns out Wanamaker’s more straitlaced Marianne. In Marvel’s multiversal TV show ‘Loki’, there’s a version of the eponymous hero who is a crocodile – great fun, but too bizarre to actually be the ‘proper’ version of Loki. Capaldi isn’t quite that out there. But he explicitly feels like a Roland Variant, not the real deal. A fascinating experiment, though, and his ‘Doctor Who’-begat fans will doubtless lap up the goofing.Purcell, Carey. "Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson Explore 'Constellations' on Broadway" playbill.com, 16 December 2014 One evening, Roland and Marianne attend a barbeque. He's a beekeeper, while she's a cosmologist, gazing at the stars in the hopes of planning her future through multiple universes. Together, Roland and Marianne hit it off, but as the topic of infidelity bubbles to the surface, the pair break up. They've got every possible future stretching out in front of them, with each possibility changing up their relationship. Throughout the play, they meet each other in unexpected situations, with Roland at Marianne's side in her final days. Constellations returned last month with the two casts of Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah, and Zoë Wanamaker and Peter Capaldi. Now, it’s the turn of Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey, and Anna Maxwell-Martin and Chris O’Dowd’s to bring a plurality of bodies – refracted through new lenses of race, class, sexuality and age – to Marianne and Roland’s tragic-comic love story. This astonishing creation has burst from the imaginations of designer Isabel Hudson and director Ian Michael. It sets us up for a mind-expanding night in the theatre...The characters are engaging, funny and moving” The Sydney Morning Herald

Some historians argue that many of the myths associated with the constellations were invented specifically to help farmers construct an accurate understanding of the sky. From ancient times farmers knew that for most crops, you plant in the spring and harvest in the autumn. Therefore, by ensuring the planting took place at the correct time the risk of a failed harvest was kept to a minimum, particularly in regions where the differentiation between the seasons was slight. Restricted View seats have an impeded view of certain scenes and will be unable to see the entire stage area. Please call Box Office on (02) 9250 1777 with any questions. In January 2013 Payne revealed that a film adaptation was under way. [14] That plan has since been shelved. A simple planisphere or star wheel can be rotated to indicate what stars and constellations are visible at any one time and place.

What are constellations?

This is the first step on a long road for me to dwelve into the wonders of really contemporary British plays. And I'm glad I could start out with something like Constellations. I loved it. I loved the whole "what could happen in alternate universes with the same two people" theme, and I loved the dialogue. Fresh, fun, but also deep and really credible. Overall, it gets a big thumbs up from me. And while a lot of the press seems to focus on the structure and the science bits, really this is a story of two people, and all the possibilities people encounter and even carry within themselves. That's the strength of this play - that and some really fantastic dialogue. But the ending kind of left me, I dunno, cold. I guess it would be how you do it on the stage, but it seemed a bit of a floomp (the sound of a wet towel hitting the floor). I think I expected more once it was all over, but it kind of felt more like a writing exercise than anything else.