[NEohioPAL] Review of "Constellation" at convergence-continuum

[Bob Abelman]

‘Constellations’ at con-con lacks the requisite stardust



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal



“Constellations” is a one-act boy-meets-girl play by British dramatist Nick Payne that debuted in London in 2012 and ran on Broadway in 2015. But here, the boy meets the girl again and again and again in 65 scenes across 68 minutes.



On a bare platform in the middle of convergence-continuum’s long and narrow performance space, we witness a first encounter between Marianne (Laurel Hoffman), a Cambridge University astrophysicist, and Roland (Max Elinsky), a beekeeper. There she shares her research on the scientific theory that the universe, as we understand it, is actually a quantum multiverse, where every choice – every decision we’ve ever and never made – exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes.



And so we observe the evolution of their relationship – the awkward mutual insecurity that defines a first encounter over drinks, the growing comfort and sense of familiarity, a later infidelity, and the prospect of mortality after the young Marianne is diagnosed with a brain tumor – through this perspective of a universe with infinite possibilities. Every scene is played and replayed in revised form, leading to unlimited outcomes and immeasurable destinies.



Unfortunately, this con-con production under Geoffrey Hoffman’s direction is not without a few impediments that impact its realization of the playwright’s good intentions.



For more of this review, go to: www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/
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