San Jose/Silicon Valley - "Constellations"

Regional Reviews: San Jose/Silicon Valley

Constellations
The Pear Theatre
Review by Eddie Reynolds

Also see Eddie's review of Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical

Vivienne Troung and George Alexander K
Photo by Reed Flores

He is a beekeeper. She is a Cambridge physicist. She can wax on forever starry eyed about subjects like quantum mechanics, string theory, and cosmology. He likes to explain how female bees are the workers, and male drones exist only to have sex with the queen, after which their penises are ripped off and they die. She believes in a multiverse where there are different versions of ourselves making a range of decisions that are maybe the same, maybe different. He is more comfortable with the idea of order, with our choices laid out for us from birth–much like the world of bees. And yet they meet, date and marry–or not, according to which version of themselves they are currently experiencing.

In Nick Payne's Constellations, now at The Pear Theatre, multiple possibilities of the milestone interactions that occur over the lifetime of one couple's relationship play out in scenes that often repeat in slightly different versions of the same situation. From the moment Marianne and Roland meet and move through their on-and-off again dating, marriage proposal, and moments of triumph and heartbreak, variations of the same situation flash before us on stage in short sequences of what might have happened, hopefully did not happen, and maybe actually did happen. Scenes of the future pop up way before they actually occur, quite in keeping with Marianne's belief that time is irrelevant and that past, present, and future can exist simultaneously somewhere in alternative universes.

Written as a two-hander and performed as such since its 2012 premiere in the West End, on Broadway, and for many regional theatre companies throughout the country, Constellations is given an innovative, insightful, and invigorating twist by director Reed Flores. In over fifty scenes, three couples switch in the roles of Marianne and Roland during the ninety-minute (no intermission) production–scenes that often begin with the same lines by each couple but then take different paths to perhaps totally different outcomes.

Elana Swartz and Thomas Nguyen
Photo by Reed Flores

Over the course of the evening, the audience is lured into thinking they can identify some qualities unique to each of the three couples and their types of paired interactions, only to realize that we are seeing the same couple embodied in three versions, each with its own almost randomly assigned set of current characteristics and circumstances. It becomes near impossible to ascertain what is real and what is just a possibility of how it might have gone while it is increasingly clear that all the expressed thoughts and emotions have probably been thought or felt at some point by the real Marianne and the real Roland–whoever they may be.

Sometimes, a scene seems more from the viewpoint of Roland and sometimes of Marianne, leaving the impression that we may be peering into both of their memory banks. Sometimes a half dozen attempts of the same conversation play out, often with hilarious effects as the same words take on dramatically different meanings just by changes in vocal tone, body positions, and/or speaker–with the results being the same words leading to entirely different outcomes of the interaction.

The division of repeated scenes among the three couples–for example, several versions of a marriage proposal, with only the final one leading to a definite yes–really transforms The Pear's Constellations into a different play for anyone who has seen the same script performed by only one couple in another company's previous production. Having now seen both approaches, I am a fan of each; and I urge anyone who has seen the original version definitely to witness The Pear's inventive alternative universe for Payne's play.

To add to the production's creative approach, there are actually potentially six different versions of The Pear's current offering, because each evening ends with an audience member choosing which of the three actor-couples will play each of the three couples the next night. Thus, a second or third evening for an audience member will likely mean a quite different experience and almost a different play coming from the same script.

Sahil Singh and Raven Douglas
Photo by Reed Flores

During the run's opening evening that I attended, the three couples positioned left-to-right across The Pear's floor-level, intimate stage were as follows: Vivienne Truong and George Alexander K; Elana Swartz and Thomas Nguyen; Sahil Singh and Raven Douglas. Another night, that ordering will likely be different, with couples required to perform with different intonations, emotions, and physical reactions and stances.

Across the board, these individual actors and the twosomes they inhabit deliver superior performances. Shifts from one couple to the next occur seamlessly, aided by the perfectly timed and placed lighting effects designed by Carsten Koester. As one couple interacts, the other two watch intently, as if able to peer across time and space to see what could have, should have happened instead of what they just did. For all couples, emotions expressed run the entire gamut and can totally switch in nature from one scene as it is handed off to the next couple or from one scene to the next time any given couple is in the spotlight again.

The hesitations, the titillations, the surprises both good and devastating, the joys, and the heartbreaks of a long-term relationship–all become the palette from which these six actors and these three couples mix and match the colorings of their much-varied performances and scenes. In this noteworthy and unique undertaking by Reed Flores and The Pear Theatre, all become a collage of what couples anywhere, everywhere may experience in the lifetime of a loving relationship–a work of art well-worth a viewing (or two) by Bay Area audiences this summer.

Constellations runs through July 20, 2025, at The Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida, Suite A, Mountain View, CA. For tickets and information, please visit www.thepear.org. Photo Credits: Reed Flores Photo 512173328: Vivienne Truong and George Alexander K Photo 511997505: Elana Swartz and Thomas Nguyen Photo 511432272: Sahil Singh and Raven Douglas