Constellations: A Whirlwind of Fleeting Emotions
At the tiny Munson Memorial Library stage, I think I’ve finally seen this vaunted ‘multiverse’ that Marvel Universe fans have been discussing. It’s here, in this play, by God. No, Not Zuckerberg, that’s the Metaverse…this is different.
In Nick Payne’s multiverse, there are two characters but eight actors. The outcomes remain different while the stories remain the same.
A troupe of actors Maddie Evans, Sam Fox, Cici Drizik, Lindsey Campbell, Benjamin Hersey, Terrence J. Peters, Jim Merlin, and Cory Flood cover the two roles, each showing what could happen at the same time as another outcome.
These actors divided up the title roles of Marianne and Roland. They all spoke the same lines, divided by four. The actors all got laughs as each one did slightly different versions of that familiar text, each again not sure what would happen. It ran the gamut from funny to awkward to poignant. It was both entertaining and intriguing.
With twenty seats on either side of the sparse stage, actors ran on and off stage after brief passages, repeating the same lines, then with different people and thus different outcomes. Some cries for love go unanswered, others garner a hearty yes. Some tests yield benign results and thus smiles, while others facing the same question get the bad news.
It was very entertaining, with these men and women whisking in, throwing out a familiar line, and then seeing what happens this time. What will the outcome be? It begins with dating, “no, not him, oh no, I’m married!” on to more mundane aspects of life, and then to the grim choices we all must face.
Director Matteo Pangallo explains his vision of this theatrical multiverse.
“Constellations explores how the stories we tell each other and ourselves unfold in often unexpected ways, and how what we say–down to individual words and even the pauses between words–has consequences. It urges us to be thoughtful about our relationships, to recognize how both choice and chance work in our lives, and to celebrate the infinite potential pathways before us at even the most seemingly trivial of moments–because no moment, in fact, is really trivial.”
The New Valley Players
The Valley Players are a new troupe founded in January 2024 with a goal of making “nimble, meaningful, and accessible community theater. Nimble theater is theater in motion.” The company donates an incredibly generous 50% of ticket proceeds to a local charity, this time the Cancer Connection.
Find out more at Valleyplayers.org