Last Friday I went to watch Constellations by Rabbit Hole Productions with my foundations of acting class. The play is about Marianne, a cosmologist, and Roland, a beekeeper and how their love blossoms through different universes. Marianne was played by Amelia Chen, who happens to be the producer for this play as well, played alongside Roland acted by Dominic Lucien Luk. The director is Qahar Aqilah, who is well acquainted with my theatre lecturer, Christopher Ling. Constellations is written by Nick Payne and first opened at the Royal Court Upstairs in 2012. The play was priced at RM 58 however, I only paid RM 44 because we had a group discount. However, I wouldn’t pay to watch it again.
This play required a lot of concentration on their facial expressions rather than body movements which I couldn’t see because of the lighting. The lights did help in setting the vibe of each universe but there was very little lighting, especially face light on the actors' expressions. There were some scenes where their facial expressions were crucial in conveying the message of the script, and although Marianne’s gestures were understandable, Roland’s expression in response to Marianne's lines weren’t seen clearly. There were some flickering of lights during the play which I thought was a faulty lighting because it was so dim, but after inquiring, it was used to show Marianne’s frustrations during her rough time. This is just something to take note of because it was somewhat distracting during the play itself.
The nature of this play is repetitive as it portrays different consequences of decisions in different universes. Due to this, there were some scenes where it was highly predictable because whatever Marianne says, Roland who takes on her lines in another universe. However, the scene where Marianne got cancer was not predictable at all. I loved Amelia’s acting during this time as she expressed her struggles of wanting to keep her work and Roland yet wanting to heal herself. During the question and answer session, Amelia stated that she lost her father at a young age and that helped her express this line fully as there is an emotional attachment to it.
During the play, the energy level of Marianne was high and enthusiastic which I thought would reflect on Roland, but it didn’t. I felt that Amelia put herself in Mariannes’ shoes and became Marianne but Dominic was just acting as Roland. Amelia maintained Mariannes’ mannerisms and accent even in the switch in personality and universe; I could tell she was and wasn’t the same person at the same time. Maybe because Roland’s personality is naturally sluggish as a beekeeper, I felt that I could’ve match her enthusiasm a bit more. There was a scene where Roland was talking about his bees and how he set them up if he really loved his job, I felt he could have expressed it to Marianne’s level when she talks about quantum physics.
Besides all the criticism, I loved Amelia’s and Dominic’s chemistry in the play it was as if they were an actual couple. They weren’t awkward in the mature scenes as well such as touching each other and kissing each other even though they had only rehearsed for a month. Their coordination in their standing positions in every universe was spectacular as there was no collision and they knew exactly where to stand. I say this because, for 2 hours, they had different standing positions and if it was me, I could never remember so many in just a month of rehearsals. Furthermore, the actors could recite their lines smoothly even though it’s repeated multiple times and there were even some with one word changed.
There was also a scene where Roland’s head was covered with his jacket and we couldn’t see his face at all. During this time, Dominic could express his feeling of nervousness through his voice and lines which helped me understand his current emotion. The production team and the director also paid close attention to small details such as the set and the poster. The set had a galaxy vibe with the black background and cosmic painting to represent Marianne’s world. To represent Roland, the floor and the hexagon-shaped bed was painted a yellow-orange color to represent his job. The picture taken for the poster was also interesting as Marianne is grabbing Rolands’ arms, where a watch would be, instead of his hands. Qahar said this represented that Marianne was the one leading this relationship.
In my opinion, this play was just an average play with nothing striking about it. If you love a complex love story with multiple universes, this one's for you.
