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Constellations

Pear Theatre Innovates a Two-Hander About Multiple Realities

By: - Jul 08, 2025

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The sun rises each day in the east.  New York City is the most populous city in the United States.  Stephen Curry is a basketball player with the Golden State Warriors.  These would seem to be objective realities – at least as expressed by the verbal symbols for these objects in the English language.

Yet, linguistic theories suggest that the same things are perceived differently depending on the language representing them.  In the social sciences, the theory of Social Construction of Reality suggests that each person perceives a distinct world.  And in the physical sciences, competing theories allow for the existence of parallel universes.

These notions comprise the backdrop for Nick Payne’s innovative and stimulating play Constellations, the title of which suggests perceptive distortion.   While we see constellations in the sky as if all of the stars are in one plane facing us, some stars in the cluster may actually be millions of miles further away from our eyes than others.

Marianne is an astrophysicist at Cambridge University, an intellectual who perceives that there may be multiple universes with corresponding multiples of individuals making decisions with free choice.  Roland, a beekeeper, is grounded in the system of nature as most people would define and understand it.  He is more deterministic, focusing on the natural roles that are laid out for various species.

The disparate pair meet and fall in love.  Marianne tells Roland of things like the contradictions of particle and quantum physics, whereas he talks of the utter predictability of the social structure of bee colonies.  As suggested by the gulf in the couple’s world views and interests, nothing in the narrative convinces that these two would ever have a basis for connection, much less marriage – this being one of the gaps in the script that makes it less convincing.

They share the little pleasures of courtship as well as the disappointments with one another along the way.  The compelling conceit of the play is that each of the distinct vignettes between the two is presented three times with variation in each.  In some cases, the exchange is identical until the very end, when the outcome can change.  In others, the three versions differ significantly from the start of the tale.  Otherwise, a significant event may affect one of the partners in the first two tellings of the episode, but it affects the other in the third.  Essentially, the concept reveals the world from Marianne’s perspective of multiple realities. 

Constellations was devised as a two-hander, with the same actors performing all three variations of each episode.  The Pear Theatre has deviated by using three sets of actors playing the two characters.  Not having seen the two-hander format, it’s impossible to criticize with certainty, however, this much is clear.  While the play’s concept is interesting and the specifics of the storyline are mostly very engaging, it is fundamentally a talkfest with little action.

In this version, there is no scenery save for designs of the universe on the stage floor, so it is a truly acting-centric production.  All of the actors are always on a dimmed stage with the spotlight shifting from one couple to another accordingly, creating some dynamism and the energy of six actors.  With only two actors, one can imagine the play to be much more static.

Also, with three actors playing each part, it’s a bit like seeing different aspects of their personalities, one Marianne more bubbly, another struggling with aphasia and unable to articulate some of the words that her mind produces.  The two-hander format may allow for more tour-de-force acting, with each actor showing greater range.  On the other hand, it must seem a bit like either an acting class or different takes from filming movie scenes with having to repeatedly differentiate nearly the same material.

The cast of The Pear production, all identified in the photos, excels in creating empathetic characters with their various dimensions.  The minimalist staging suits the spareness of the plotline.

Another interesting format twist by Director Reed Flores is that after the play, some audience members randomly select which actors will play which of the three roles for each character in the next performance.  It could be intriguing to see the play a second time with the actors in different capacities.

Often, theatergoers ask the purpose of a play.  Perhaps the defining contribution of this one is raising the awareness that individual perceptions differ.  Reconciling, or at least realizing, those differences may be the start to better understanding one another.

Constellations, written by Nick Payne, is produced by The Pear Theatre, and plays on its stage at 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View, CA through July 20, 2025.