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color=#1d2129>‘Constellations</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
color=#303030>’ at con-con lacks the requisite
stardust</FONT></SPAN></B></FONT><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>“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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia>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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>For
more of this review, go to: </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>