Constellations: A fault in our stars

First international performance at the Napa explores the infinite number of possibilities in a single relationship.

KARACHI:

“Essentially anything that can happen does happen in one of the alternatives which means that superimposed on top of the Universe that we know of is an alternative universe where Al Gore is President and Elvis Presley is still alive”, this is how Alan Guth, a science educator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explains the concept of Parallel universes in the documentary BBC Horizon-Parallel Universes.

Apply the same theory to a modern day relationship and you’ll enter Constellations; a theater play directed by Gregory Thompson, starring Aiman Tariq as Marianne and Ali Junejo as Roland. Adaptation of Nick Payne’s play of the same name, Constellations was the first international production that featured in the (National Academy of Performing Arts’) Napa international Theater Festival.

“What could have been had we never met,” “What could have been had she accepted my proposal,” “What could have been had we never parted ways?” are the questions raised by the lead characters which in many ways takes the audience on an introspective journey as well. Especially for those who were watching the play with someone special.

Although the concept of multiverse seemed intriguing and ambitious, it may take an audience member a while to catch up with the pace. Rapid changes of scenes and repetition of dialogues that imply the infinite number of possibilities of their relationship often happen so quickly that, as an audience member, you’re unable to look at the larger picture. Not because there isn’t a larger picture but because by the time you realise what point in their relationship the characters are presently in, they have moved on to another one.



Much like using fades in film editing, the change in lighting setups was used to transition from one scene to another. Although the rapid changes add to the concept of probabilities on a thematic level, they sacrifice on the drama by cutting the action just before it reaches crescendo. This leaves very little to explore for the audience members who are unaware of the concept being discussed.

This also makes the play a touch monotonous and boring, especially when Roland proposes to Marianne with the latter reacting to the proposal differently in each universe.

Despite being one of the more interesting scenes due to his speech preceding the proposal that “there are three kinds of bees —  the drones, the workers and the solitary queen,” the scene falls flat.

While presenting the play, Director Gregory Thompson spoke about how the cast had rehearsed for the play in the space of three days and he had also positioned the prompt on stage to provide forgotten dialogues.

But despite the involvement of prompter and the liberty of reading from the script, Aiman’s voice couldn’t be heard properly (even in the front row) whereas Junejo on the other hand was more crisp and believable in his expression.

Although an admirable attempt to view the complex relationship between a man and woman through physics, the only question audience members are left with at the conclusion is, “Could it have been better?”Constellations was performed for two days at Napa and its final performance is scheduled for Friday, March 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  13^th,  2015.

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