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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewConstellations
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But if every possible future exists, then the decisions we do and don’t make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing.
— Marianne
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Sally Hawkins as Marianne and Rafe Spall as Roland (Photo: Simon Annand) |
We first meet Marianne played by Golden Globe award winning actress, Sally Hawkins, at a barbecue and in instant rewinds and replays, Roland changes character and is variously with his girlfriend, his wife, his wife, his girlfriend and the relationship possibilities stop there, until at last, he is unattached and there on his own. Marianne’s chat up line is about one’s inability to lick one’s own elbow and whether if we could do so this would reveal the secret of immortality.
So Constellations follows the permutations of Roland and Marianne in their fledgling relationship stopping every couple of pages to take that scene again with differing outcomes and reactions like a devised performance with infinite variables. Marianne has headaches and starts to lose the words as, in obvious pain, her conversation deconstructs. She talks science while he talks about sex with her. She mentions that several outcomes can co-exist simultaneously. A blip in their relationship brings confessions of infidelity with someone else, or not. After meeting up again at a ballroom dancing class, a proposal of marriage with its prelude about the role of the three kinds of bees is delivered six (well it felt like six, but was actually three) different ways.
The set is full of white helium balloons in different shapes, each with a dangling white ribbon, a pretty visual reminder of the potential planetary universe. Rafe Spall is mesmerising in all of Roland’s incarnations, gentle, more aggressive, polite, detached, leaving the audience with a spectrum of his character. Sally Hawkins shows depth and intelligence as Marianne and what is so interesting is that we believe in this composite character of differing outcomes.
Michael Longhurst handles these scene changes in universe with lights out and music without confusion or consternation.
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| Constellations
Written by Nick Payne Directed by Michael Longhurst Starring: Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall Designed by Tom Scutt Lighting: Len Curran Sound: David McSeveney Running time: 65 minutes without an interval Box Office: 020 7565 5000 Booking to 11th February 2012 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 19th January 2012 performance at the Royal Court, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS (Tube: Sloane Square) |
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