Constellations at GableStage
EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES OF A RELATIONSHIP
Prize winning married theatre actors – much like Lunt and Fontaine – have a spectacular time on the stage together, especially when the audience knows in advance that the twosome are a couple in real life. So, if you know before the play begins that prize-winning thespians Katherine Amadeo and Antonio Amadeo. appearing in the GableStage production of the British play Constellations. have been married for 12 years, it is difficult not to realize the chemistry that they illuminate on stage is real.
That is a truism especially when a play has its characters in multiple possibilities of a relationship. The actors who can make these encounters seem real speak volumes for the talent of these two individuals, whether a couple in real life or not. The Amadeos deliver in both scenarios in this production and emerge as a multi-talented duo – exceptional as individuals and a WOW together in this two character play.
Constellations, by the brilliant young playwright Nick Payne, premiered in London three years ago, winning best play honors at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. The play opened in New York for a limited 10-week run in January 2014 with filmdom’s Jake Gyllenhall making his Broadway debut opposite Ruth Wilson of TV Showtime’s The Affair.
As good as they were critique-wise in New York, it is hard to imagine anyone else quite as good as the Amadeos are in this GableStage production, directed by award-winning Joseph Adler.
Actually, the Amadeos and Adler form a trio of top award recipients. Antonio won the best actor Carbonell award in 2007 for his performance in The Pillowman at GableStage. Next month, he’ll receive a Silver Palm Award for playing the lead in the Island City Stage world premiere of Michael McKeever’s Daniel’s Husband. Katherine just finished playing a starring role in The Mousetrap at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre and holds two Silver Palms and four Carbonell nominations to her credit. Ditto for Adler – a ten-time Carbonell and a double Silver Palm recipient.
In Constellations, Katherine portrays Marianne, a Cambridge University physicist specializing in “theoretical early universe cosmology,” while Antonio plays a working-class Roland, a beekeeper who sells exquisite honey. The fact that two such different characters can fall in love is the crux of Constellations. But what makes this play so different is the fact that it delves into the infinite possibilities of their relationship and questions about the potential events they could have either by choice or destiny.
Constellations is a different kind of play for two reasons. First, it is a play which depends totally on the two actors connecting with one another. Secondly, it allows the audience to survey the infinite possibilities that a relationship can take. It allows the audience to question which outcome is the most possible – no easy task as a result of playwright Payne’s kaleidoscopic creativity!! It is theatre at its most creative junction!
Technically, Constellations is picture perfect, especially the set by Lyle Baskin, the sound by Matt Corey and the lighting by Jeff Quinn.
Constellations runs through December 20. For ticket information, call 305-445-1119 or visitwww.gablestage.org.
