“Constellations” at 4CP: A Breathtaking Ode to Love in the Multiverse
“Constellations” by Nick Payne runs through Sunday, Oct. 15, in the Four County Players Cellar and stars Amy Dawn Hamburger and Reed Willard. (Photo Credit: Amy Wells)
Are human beings infinite, or infinitesimally small? And either way, what does it mean for how we approach our day-to-day lives — our relationships, losses, hopes and fears? These are the questions at play in Nick Payne’s “Constellations,” running now through Oct. 15 in the Cellar at Four County Players.
Somewhere in the multiverse, quantum physicist Marianne and beekeeper Roland meet at a barbecue. Or, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. What follows in this theatrical venture into parallel dimensions is a surprisingly tender love story interlaced with enough sci-fi intrigue to keep audiences on their toes.
In “Constellations,” Payne explores how the seemingly insignificant choices we make — to open up or shut down in a moment of vulnerability, or to react to a situation with empathy or anger — can ripple out into a million different outcomes. Added to this is the ultimate question: To what extent do our choices matter at all, or are we just “particles being knocked around” by the whims of fate or chance?
Amidst all of these daunting thoughts, and despite dealing with difficult topics like illness and heartbreak, a thread of hope emerges in Payne’s script. Perhaps, human beings can learn a lesson from Roland’s honeybees, viewing our own smallness as an invitation to approach life with a sense of grace and purpose.
This is a challenging play in terms of acting, and Four County Players newcomers Amy Dawn Hamburger and Reed Willard were both up to the task. In a world of endless possibilities, how do you maintain a cohesive character while respecting the huge differences in outcomes and personalities that even one small decision can make? How do you make sure that a joke lands not once, but half a dozen times? In the case of one of the characters, how do you maintain the core of someone’s personality as even they struggle with the ability to communicate their ideas?
At the end of this whirlwind of a play, I’m still not sure I know the answers to those questions, but I do know that Hamburger and Willard pulled it off because eighty minutes and about a hundred scenarios later, I was just as caught up in their love story as ever. Hamburger brilliantly handles the role of cosmologist Marianne, playing the reserved scientist without ever falling into the “smart but tragically cold” trope. Meanwhile, Willard adds a sense of lightheartedness to an emotionally weighty play, loveably the everyman but never boring. They’re opposites, but it’s easy to see why the two characters are drawn to the complimentary qualities they find in each other.
Set design and production were equally on point, and the decision to use the smaller, more intimate setting of the Cellar was just the right choice for this introspective, stripped-down play. With a chronology that could easily become confusing, smart changes in lighting and wardrobe made it appreciably easier to follow the mind-bending script as it weaves throughout time and space.
The takeaway? In the words of Marianne, we may have “all the time we’ve ever had,” but that doesn’t mean you should stall to see this mind-bending romance.
“Constellations” runs weekends through Oct. 15 in the Cellar at Four County Players, located at 5256 Governor Barbour Street in Barboursville. Friday and Saturday night performances are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. All tickets are $15 and early ticket purchases are recommended as seating is limited. For more information or to purchase tickets, call the box office at (540) 832-5355, or visit the Four County Players website at www.fourcp.org or Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fourcountyplayers.
CONTENT WARNING: This production contains adult language and themes, including discussions and/or depictions of terminal illness and assisted suicide. It is not recommended for audiences under the age of 13.