‘Constellations’ Preview: A Love Story in a Multiverse

Three is a crowd — at least when it comes to “Constellations,” a 2015 two-person play by Nick Payne. The Harvard staging, running from March 28 to March 31 at the Loeb Experimental Theater and co-directed by Dora Ivkovich ’24 and Zachary “Zach” B. Halberstam ’25, adds a queer spin to a profound and at times perplexing love story.

“Constellations” follows a romantic relationship between Rachel (Kyra S. Siegel ’25), a beekeeper, and Marianne (Turandot Shayegan ’25), a physicist. Although the story might seem straightforward, it is anything but. Quantum mechanics and the multiverse theory feature prominently in the play, so much so that the production staff includes a dramaturg responsible for physics and scientific accuracy, Connor L. Sponsler ’24. The end result is a highly non-linear plot depicting the many what-could-have-beens between its two protagonists, and turning a love story into a thoughtful exploration of the human experience and free will.

“‘Constellations’ shows you all of these little different possibilities and different vignettes from within different possibilities of ‘It could have gone this way.’ ‘It could have gone this way.’ And then I think what you get together is a really exciting picture of a relationship,” Halberstam said.

Shayegan similarly noted that the show focuses on the importance of small decisions, how they “radically change these two people’s lives.” To her, the message is ultimately uplifting. Paraphrasing her character, she said the show ultimately highlights the role of human agency.

“If we imagine that there are many different versions of the future, then we have this sort of unbridled sense of autonomy,” Shayegan said.

Siegel added that “Constellations” tackles profound questions about relationships.

“What does it mean to lose love? And, sometimes, even scarier is the question of, What does it mean to keep it? What does it mean to rebuild?,” said Siegel.

The complexity of the plotline and the play’s ambitious aims could make for a confusing show. Halberstam noted that finding the right way to stage it was a challenge. But, as he emphasized, “Constellations” — despite being originally a West End show — is uniquely suited for a venue like the Loeb Ex, which allows the production to become much more “immersive” and intimate.

“[It] had to be in sort of a small scale theater,” Halberstam said.

The smaller venue is not the only change to the original material that Ivkovich and Halberstam made. “Constellations” was written with a male- and a female-identifying actor in mind. The Harvard production, however, was cast gender-blind and the two people ultimately chosen for the roles were women. Thus, with permission from Payne, the staging became one of only a handful to feature a same-sex relationship. That, as Ivkovich emphasized, brought its own set of challenges and opportunities.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with the actresses crafting their characters and finding how their characters work within queer culture,” Ivkovich said. “How do they feel about the fact that they’re cheating on one another? Does that change when gender changes? What does it say about one of them that she’s a physicist and about the other one that she's a beekeeper? And what does that speak to in their experience of queerness and their experience of gender?”

Another notable change is the original score by Joseph “Joe” C. Bradley ’25 and Max B. Allison ’25. As Allison said, the two tried to “develop one artistic font,” tying the show together through music. To accomplish that and to mimic the peculiarity of “Constellations,” their end product “involved randomness and collapse of chords” and made extensive use of electroacoustics and emulation of analog synthesizers.

“You have this electronic world of constellations and universes that kind of mixes with this diegetic music of waltzing and dancing,” Allison said.

To call “Constellations” complex is an understatement. But the different elements are not disparate or chaotically arranged. The play’s elements form a constellation themselves — and a meaningful one at that, at least to Shayegan.

“There’s something terrifying to it, to watch what happens to these two people with such small choices being the difference,” she said. “And I think in the end it’s empowering.”

“Constellations” runs at the Loeb Ex from March 28 to March 31.

—Staff writer Zachary J. Lech can be reached at zachary.lech@thecrimson.com.