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| Photo credit: BBC and Johan Persson. |
I'm not a massive fan of musicals. Over the years, for one reason or another, I've watched many of them...enough to know that I wouldn't want to watch another again if it's at all possible. But I love plays. Seeking out plays here is exciting, and easy. One click away. *beams* Especially finding out about one play that has already received rave reviews in presenting the string theory to the audiences through an everyday scenario, of love and relationships- 'Constellations'. (Read reviews here, here, here and here.)
Directed by 29-year old Nick Payne, the play proclaimed, "One relationship, infinite possibilities". 70 minutes long without an intermission, the two leads Sally Hawkins (of 'Made in Dagenham' and 'Happy Go Lucky') and Rafe Spall (who died really fast as Millburn in 'Prometheus') were spellbinding as the lights flickered and they flit from choices to possibilities to scenarios. In their roles, Sally is Marianne the cosmologist, and Rafe is Roland the beekeeper. They begin a relationship that could have gone anywhere. Marriage, illness, separation, and if they had gone back in time, and not taken that step of getting back together after a break-up, then it puts forth the theory of 'what if', 'now what', and nothingness.
I don't understand the city's theatre scene enough to truly appreciate the fuss the critics made about the play moving from Royal Court Upstairs to West End. It's not as simple as moving from an indie platform to something mainstream. It's more to do with hmmm...popularity. Anyway, it has been hailed as one of the best West End shows of the 2012. It just won the Evening Standard theatre awards for 'Best Play'. Loved the multitude of whimsical and abstract white light spheres and white balloons hanging above the stage, and those that dropped down towards the last five minutes.
The script's tight, the lines funny and emotional. The gems in Constellations, are in how the actors play out the repetition and how things might have played out differently if another choice has been made, the circularity of time, infinity, loop, et cetera, and also, the ending. I love the ending. So poignant. Nothing else could have bettered the conclusion thus written.
2 comments:
Glad to know there are people like me. I am not big on musicals too but there are just too many around who are and I have somehow watched too many in life. Big on operas and plays but somehow musicals never appeal.
muchadoabouteating: hehehe. I've peculiar tastes, often. So Glee is in particular, horrifying to me. Although I'll give them credit for revivals of certain rock icons of the 70s/80s/90s. Like Journey and Fleetwood Mac. Heh. I grit my teeth in particular to Phantom of the Opera. Not hot about ALW's works, but I'll give concessions to Whistle Down The Wind. The film's brilliant. ALW didn't kill it too badly.
I'm half and half about opera though. I tend to avoid Mozart's stuff. Then there're the in-betweens I can't decide whether to love or to hate, like, La Traviata. There're loves, like L'Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice, Rigoletto and Serse. Huge fan of Benjamin Britten.
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