Nerds in Love, Rewriting Destinies
Ben BrantleyJanuary 13, 2015: Who knew that higher physics could be so sexy, so accessible — and so emotionally devastating? Constellations, Nick Payne’s gorgeous two-character drama, starring a perfectly matched Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, may be the most sophisticated date play Broadway has seen. This 70-minute fugue-like production, which opened on Tuesday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, takes that most elemental of dramatic setups — boy meets girl — and then spins it into a seeming infinitude of might-have-been alternatives. This is achieved through the application of the principles of string theory, relativity and quantum mechanics, although don’t ask me to explain precisely how. In college, I barely squeaked through Physics for Poets. But I had no difficulty following the convolutions of the relationship between Roland (Mr. Gyllenhaal), a beekeeper, and Marianne (Ms. Wilson), a Cambridge University academic specializing in “theoretical early universe cosmology.” Did I just hear you gulp? Or perhaps sigh at the prospect of another sentimental portrait of a British brainiac, what with those Oscar-bait movies starring Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch as geniuses under siege? You are probably more apt to discover your own self in the characters of Constellations, which was first staged in London in 2012 and arrives here in a Manhattan Theater Club production. I would even venture that it’s impossible not to identify with Roland and Marianne if you’ve ever been in love. No, make that if you’ve ever relived your life in your mind, considering the factors that made things happen as they did.
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