Theater Review | ‘Constellations’ Offers a Pleasurable Meditation on Love
Ventura Rubicon Theatre’s Drama Takes on Two People and Infinite Possibilities For Their Story
Constellations, Nick Payne’s two-person drama about love in the multiverse, is a unique pleasure. Directed by Jonathan Fox and produced by the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, the show is ostensibly about the lifespan of the relationship between characters Marianne and Roland. The story, being small in scope, has room to also be enormous in concept: In Constellations, Marianne and Roland exist outside of time, across many universes, their storyline playing out in unfathomable iterations.
The play begins when Marianne and Roland meet at a BBQ. The narrative is structured in bursts of short scenes, a fluttering of beginnings that fade and restart after critical decisions send the story away from the intended ending, like a Roomba self-correcting against walls as it works its way through a maze. Future moments offer the audience a glimpse of the end for Marianne and Roland, giving the scenes of their progressing situation greater depth. Constellations is a moving meditation on how the smallest choices, even those made without thought or agenda, can affect the trajectory of a life; and how the trajectory of a life may be inevitable — regardless of decisions of any magnitude.
The Rubicon’s production of Constellations is a theatrical experience designed to insist on investment of imagination from the audience. Tom Ainsley (as Roland) and Kodi Jackman (as Marianne) provide anchors in realism within a set by François-Pierre Couture that reminds of a vintage-futurism mirror chamber of glowing orbs and groovy colors. The abstract space accomplishes timeless, placeless, and liminal, and is modest enough to allow the audience to imagine their own necessary details.
Constellations is a tight piece of drama with great performances, an elegant story, and a cosmic concept. It’s a small play that fills the entire theatre and beyond. The production runs at the Rubicon in Ventura through March 9. rubicontheatre.org
TOM AINSLEY and KODI JACKMAN star in the Central Coast Premiere of CONSTELLATIONS, part of Rubicon’s 2024/2025 “Dare to Dream” Season. | Photo: Lore Photography 
TOM AINSLEY and KODI JACKMAN star in the Central Coast Premiere of CONSTELLATIONS, part of Rubicon’s 2024/2025 “Dare to Dream” Season. | Photo: Lore Photography 
TOM AINSLEY and KODI JACKMAN star in the Central Coast Premiere of CONSTELLATIONS, part of Rubicon’s 2024/2025 “Dare to Dream” Season. | Photo: Lore Photography
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