Review: CONSTELLATIONS at the Vaudeville Theatre

Stuart King 7 August, 2021, 10:47

Constellations - London Play The intimate Vaudeville Theatre on London’s Strand, is currently playing host to Michael Longhurst’s superb revival of Nick Payne’s wonderfully touching 2012 play Constellations.

As the West End gently reawakens, after the devastating restrictions imposed by lockdown, there’s perhaps a greater need than ever before for subtle, life-affirming, human interaction stories — and this is among the very best.

An apiarist and a cosmologist traverse the bumps of various possible life scenes, played-out in short, snappy parallel universe vignettes. Some are laced with the sort of playful wit and fragile awkwardness of a teenage first date, whilst others are imbued with the restrained but heart rending angst of impending human tragedy.

It’s not a perfect play — and nor does it need to be, for it presents a multitude of slightly different journeys and outcomes, all generously realised by the two on-stage players. This production offers theatregoers 4 pairings of actors during its run (check listings for details). On the night this reviewer attended, Russell Tovey and Omari Douglas added a new and largely successful twist to the play which was originally played out by a man and a woman. This adds a further layer of fluidity to Payne’s vulnerable and enriching tragi-comedy.