Season Select: Constellations

CONSTELLATIONS

By Nick Payne
Directed by Vanessa Stalling

Playing: Touchstone Theatre | August 10 - September 28
Featuring: Phoebe González and Casey Hoekstra
Genre: Contemporary Drama
Last Seen at APT: First time!
Go If You Liked: Proof (2023), Once Upon a Bridge (2023), Stones in his Pockets (2022)

About Constellations

An instant of connection unfurls infinite possibilities – a single moment that explodes into shards, each projecting its own unique outcome. Every new relationship is exquisite in its promise. Whether it blazes on or burns out, it is unique to the people who share it. Love, after all, is the ultimate mind-bender, flowing through countless embodiments from beginning to end. Or to infinity. Or to any of the endless in-betweens – romantic, infuriating, dangerous, funny and ultimately, utterly human. A kaleidoscopic look at love, and the everyday decisions that echo endlessly through time. Running August 10 - September 28.

The universe is big. The multiverse is infinite.

At the center of Nick Payne’s 2012 play Constellations is a love story. It’s the cosmic meet-cute of a beekeeper and a quantum physicist who are experiencing their relationship across several different universes. Different choices result in different actions, creating a winding picture of a love story on separate but intersecting tracks.

Payne didn’t originally intend to write a play so galactic in tone. Following the loss of his father, Payne turned to subliminally numbing his grief through a documentary series called The Elegant Universe. He quickly became fascinated with Einstein’s attempt to create a connecting thread for all theories and principles of physics (String Theory), and the resulting discovery that, in order to mathematically prove the existence of such a complex system, certain concepts would need to be explored and accepted as possible, even if they seem outlandish. Concepts like the Quantum Multiverse - infinite universe that are a product of randomness and choice.

It’s a vastly interesting (and terrifying) idea. It was powerful enough for Payne to use it as a filter for this modern love story, though he does acknowledge that what truly inspired him was the thought of a distant universe where those we have lost still live on.

After the play’s London premiere in 2012, Constellations made its Broadway debut in 2015. In the most recent revival of the play produced by the West End’s Donmar Warehouse, the two-person show was reimagined for four rotating separate casts, bringing the same play to life but with different, across-universe versions of the characters at the center.

Constellations is, of course, about the big ideas. But for those who become dizzy thinking about the unknowable vastness of our universe (and many others like it), it's also simply the story of two people finding a connection. Which in the grand scheme of the seemingly-random stars, might be the most amazing thing possible.

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita Says:

We've been wanting to work with Vanessa Stalling, who is this incredible director and human, for a long time now. The way she approaches plays is so smart and fresh. She’s worked extensively in Chicago, where she adapted and directed an award-winning production of Laurence Gonzales’ United Flight 232 a few years ago. And she’s also an Associate Directing Professor at UC San Diego. So we had to find a play that was just right to lure her back to the Midwest to direct for APT. And Constellations is that play. It’s this mind-bending love story that unfolds in real time, and also through infinity. You see this couple meet and make choices, and you feel the impact of each of those choices land, sometimes in this charming, heart-melting way. And other times not so much. And that’s love, right? You know how it feels when a moment is just…perfect. And you know the times when you would do anything to take back something you said or did. Constellations asks, what if you could really do that? Have that do-over? Would it really fix things? And we have just the right actors to explore those big questions. Phoebe González, who joined the Core Acting Company this year, and Casey Hoekstra, who you’ve seen in many plays at APT. They will bring the heart this play needs to be fully realized. It’s going to be beautiful, and like nothing you’ve seen.