Constellations
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Cititour.com Review
It’s all too easy to feel consternation before Nick Payne’s “Constellations” even begins. Upon entering Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, we’re greeted with a black platform stage engulfed by dozens of what appear to white balloons. Looking inside the Playbill, we discover this two-hander is set in “The Multiverse” in “the past, present, and future.” Uh. Oh. Do we make a run for it now?
And when the show’s marquee stars, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, step on that platform and start talking, they simply spend the first few minutes reenacting the exact same scene with different physical movements and line readings. Wait, that’s the exact same thing I did as a 16-year-old in acting class. Is this all the next 70 minutes really going to offer us?
Well, yes, and, fortunately no. Payne’s play (which is using the term a tad loosely) is basically a series of scenes played out in multiple variations between Roland (Gyllenhaal), a nice-guy beekeeper, and Marianne (Wilson), a Cambridge physicist, who meet cute at a barbecue and whose relationship evolves (and devolves) in often surprising ways.
Had their story been told conventionally, it might be stupefyingly dull. But Payne’s purposefully elliptical script – which is also a clever meditation on the nature of time itself – ultimately proves to be quite enlightening and remarkably affecting. As we watch these two souls grapple with the challenges of human connection, from finding love to facing infidelity and possible death, it’s impossible not to be moved.
Of course, much of the credit for keeping us engaged is due to director Michael Longhurst’s guidance of these gifted performers, whose commitment to Payne’s tricky concept never flags. Gyllenhaal, sporting a decent British accent and looking suitably hunky (for those who care about such matters), can muster anger, silliness, nonchalance, or despair on a dime as called for. He makes Roland a wholly sympathetic individual, albeit one with human flaws, and shows his stage chops are worthy of the Great White Way.
Wilson -- a two-time Olivier Award winner familiar to some American audiences through her work on TV’s “Luther” and “The Affair,” -- proves even more chameleonic. She practically changes appearances (despite never wearing anything but designer Tom Scutt’s one drab workaday costume) as often as she does emotions. Payne’s script also gives her character more of the heavy lifting as Marianne faces both familial and personal health crises that are truly heart-wrenching. With this extraordinary performance, Wilson not only joins America’s constellation of great theatrical stars, she shines as one of the brightest to be seen this season.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://constellationsbroadway.com
Cast
Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Wilson
Open/Close Dates
Opening 1/13/2015
Closing 3/15/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 12/16/2014
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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