By JESSICA NEU

By definition, a constellation is a group of visible stars that form a visible pattern. This pattern, however, is based solely on one’s perception, thereby rendering infinite ways to interpret a single cluster of patterned stars. Nick Payne’s 2012 play Constellations uses the themes of infinity and perception and brilliantly applies them to ideas of fate, free will, and our own physical earthly presence. 

Riverfront Theater Company tackles this intricate yet intimate 3-person show to conclude its 2024 season. Director Caitlin Dobronz uses the program to articulate how deliberate she was in selecting this show to close the season. Her poignant and heartfelt explanation is echoed by the delicateness with which Ethan Butler and Rebekah Hukill approach their roles as Roland and Marianne, respectively. Butler and Hukill command the stage with a presence that commands the audience’s attention for the entire 90-minute performance. 

They begin with a chance encounter at a barbecue. Thinking back on your own life, consider how many chance meetings or encounters you have had with a stranger at a barbeque or similar gathering. Do you still talk to any of them? Did they become a fling that is now a distant memory? Did you marry them? What if one external variable of that chance encounter differed? How would that shift have affected the outcome of the encounter? For example, did you meet someone you feel you could have intimately connected with but were in a monogamous relationship at the time? 

This idea of a chance encounter is where Constellations begins. We enter Roland and Marianne’s chance encounter at a barbeque, but the encounter is continuously rewound like your favorite cassette tape when you misheard a lyric or loved a specific part of a song. Butler and Hukill enter a space, begin a dialogue, and then physically pivot back to their starting points to start the encounter again from the perspective of a different external variable until they reach the interaction that will ultimately propel their fate forward. Just like actual constellations, their relationship from the moment they meet is open to interpretation. 

Roland is a beekeeper who loves sharing his impressive knowledge of different bee species. At the same time, Rebekah is a theoretical physicist who has become immersed in scientific theory. Together, we live through their relationship through multiple lenses and perspectives. This multi-dimensional view of life highlights the metaphysical theme that traverses Constellations. 

Any relationship is filled with joy and turmoil; Roland’s and Marianne’s are no different. But what Constellations offers is the space for us to consider how a single variable in life can change the trajectory of the rest of our time on Earth. Sitting and pondering metaphysical questions can be uncomfortable. Still, Butler and Hukill portray likable characters we are rooting for to succeed. Their chemistry and authenticity allow us to become enraptured in their story without displacing too much of the weighty theme of Constellations unto our own selves. 

As we watch Roland and Marianne’s story unfold, we are pushed to consider how every choice that we have ever made exists in a parallel universe. Is there an unlimited number of futures at this moment? If our future is potentially endless, do our choices thereby determine which future we experience? Is every experience that we have simply a roll of the dice on how our life unfolds from that moment, or is our future already predetermined in manifested destiny that already exists? Butler and Kukill’s relationship unfolds by continuously rewinding a given moment or even returning to a different time in life to show us how a single action or response can challenge the notion of free will. 

Butler and Hukill command the stage and carry this show professionally and confidently, transcending theater and becoming an immersive experience. Their choices alter their story, and they rewind each interaction with varying nuance and response. Their tone, intonation, and motivation shift during each rewind, making us hyper-aware of our ownreactions. They show how a response of lust, disdain, envy, addiction, or ambivalence can shift an entire temporal moment of your life. Butler and Hukill exude each emotional response flawlessly down to the raw shock and pain involving discovering that you or a loved one is stricken with a terminal illness. They replay the same interaction multiple different times to prove how much choice and control we have in a given moment. We are living their life with them. The cast invites us into their world with the omnipresent silent yet metaphorical Grim Keeper (Reed Callan). It allows us to interpret their constellations in life.

As Marianne grapples with the end of her life, she continues to push off her love of her work, finding it impossible to quit her life’s passion for studying theoretical physics. In her demise, she draws inspiration from her mother, who perceivably also died of a terminal illness. She repeats that her mother was not afraid to die but rather afraid to be kept alive. As she stumbles to find words, Marianne finds solace in pondering who we were before we had a face, faith, or perhaps when we were just one with God. Challenging the notions of time and space in metaphysics, she claims that one should not fear death because “knowing that another [me] and another [you] can be anywhere” – on holiday, together at 70 years old, healthy, or even in another universe. She continues that “time is asymmetrical, but no one knows why” and that “time is irrelevant at the level of atoms and molecules.” When we exist in that juncture, “we have all the time we’ll ever have.”

Pondering life’s more significant meanings, the meaning of our existence, or the afterlife are certainly introspective topics that are widespread and open to interpretation, just like constellations. Dobronz’s Constellations thrives because Butler and Hukill create a safe, accessible, and relatable yet not painful place for us to enter this line of introspection. Whether you believe in an afterlife, free will, fate, choice, or luck, Constellations allows you to place yourself into one of the many patterns of Roland and Marianne’s life. As you are situated within this space, allow yourself to feel the asymmetry of time and consider the metaphysical aspects of life. 

Although we are not awarded the rewinds provided in a theatrical script, which often results in lingering “what ifs,” we can still revel in the beauty that is simultaneously fate and free will.  

TICKETS AND DETAILS

Constellations by Riverfront Theater Company at Allegheny River Trail Park has performances November 14-16 & 21-23, 2024. For tickets visit: https://www.riverfronttheaterco.org

Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews