12th January Written in the stars

Last night I had a little solo jolly out into Nottingham to the Lace Market Theatre to see a play called Constellations written by Nick Payne that poses questions about reality, time, chance, free will, choice, life, memory, death, bee keeping and astrophysics. 

Featuring just two actors and performed in what I would describe as an upstairs room rather than 'on stage' it was a beautiful, beguiling, funny, thought provoking and challenging 75 minute production that focussed on the central premise of how many times a story could be told if we were to believe that every choice we made or didn't make opened up a new possible path into the future. And what if all those possible futures were happening at the same time in different universes.

Confused, well think of the scene in the movie Sliding Doors (if you have seen it)  in which runs two parrallel stories emerge depending on whether Gwyneth Paltrow manages to catch a particular undergound train or not. Indeed Marvel has brought a lot of similar ideas into huge mainstream films and TV shows over the past few years with multiverses existing based on the choices its superheoes and villains make.

In Constellations what we eavesdropped in on is the relationship of Marianne (the cerebral astro physicist)  and Roland (the more grounded bee keeper)  via the presentation of multiple permutations of key moments in their relationship. Often such key moments were played out upto 5 times with just subtle changes in dialogue, tone or end point used to offer the audience just a glimpse into how their future relationship 'might ' have unfolded. One such 'retake' was beautifully played out in British Sign Language with the audience fully aware and involved, having heard the words spoken in another possible future just moments before, (if that makes sense)

So boy meets girl at a rain-sodden barbecue, they hit it off and live happily ever after. Or maybe they don’t. Because in a different version(s) being played out at the same time in a parallel universe, on indeed multiverses, their relationship plays out in myriad different ways. Love emerges in Constellations not through fate but a series of fortuitous accidents, which, in several versions of the story, never actually come to pass. 

A lovely way to spend some time thinking about time with a line resonating in my head from the play as Marriane and Roland  confronting one possible future involving a terminal illness and assisted suicide that say...

We have all the time we’ve always had.
You’ll still have all our time.
Once I...
Once...
Once...
There’s not going to be any more or less of it.
Once I’m gone.”