Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...This is a truly beautiful two-character play - now in its Chicago premiere with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company under the direction of Jonathan Berry - about an unfolding relationship between Marianne, a brilliant, neurotic academic, and a more oblique and taciturn beekeeper named Roland. What makes the play unusual (it is a work of Stoppardian complexity but not that hard to follow) is that it contains many scenes that are immediately repeated, sometimes with slightly different emphases, sometimes with wholly different resolutions."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...The sheer brilliance and beauty of British playwright Nick Payne's "Constellations" - now in an altogether awe-inspiring production at Steppenwolf Theatre - is that he has not only found a way to intertwine these two forms but, simultaneously, he has been able to bring them down to earth in the most comprehensible way - through the relationship between a man and a woman."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...Sweet but not cloying, cerebral yet comprehensible, "Constellations" is rooted in physics -- specifically the incompatible theories of quantum mechanics (which explains subatomic particles) and relativity (which explains the universe). The play also references string theory (suggested by large, spiderweb sculptures flanking the stage). They all figure into this nonlinear drama, which imagines the myriad ways a relationship can evolve and regress."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...For those inclined to moon over life's what-ifs, Payne's unchallenging observations-e.g., bad timing, bad moods, and terminal illnesses can screw up relationships-may hold allure. But by design, nothing of consequence can happen, and the characters can't develop beyond momentary possibilities. It's a 70-minute acting exercise. Still, Jessie Fisher's astute, hair-trigger performance as Marianne is a marvel."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...It may only last 80 minutes, but British playwright Nick Payne sure does pack in plenty in his thoughtful and heartbreaking 2012 drama Constellations. Now making a strong Chicago debut in Steppenwolf's Upstairs Theatre, Constellations wows because it rapidly fires on so many neurological synapses."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...In Constellations, it's Marianne's work in quantum theory and Roland's study of roles in hive society that provide a frame for the endless permutations of the couple, movingly played out by Fisher and Hill, who never leave Joe Schermoly's limboesque gray slate of a set. The individual points begin to form a larger shape: the way a relationship can leave us changed for good, no matter when or how it comes to an end."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a roll of the dice, suggests playwright Nick Payne in his touching romance "Constellations," now on crisp and credible view at Steppenwolf Theatre. But Payne's ethereal proposition really goes further: Imagine what it might look like, from somewhere on the space-time continuum, if you could watch the same situation - say, the relationship between a man and a woman - play out from the get-go over and over, like infinite tosses of those fateful little cubes."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Above all, this Steppenwolf stunner with its multi-layered magic forbids us to confuse what is with what must be or to assume that a lifetime has limits. Like Thornton Wilder's similarly-playful Our Town, Constellations puts everything in flux, just as it actually is. We deny an unfinished and infinite universe at our peril."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...I left Steppenwolf Theatre perplexed after sitting through British playwright Nick Payne’s Constellations. The 80 minute two-hander seem to last 80 hours. It lost me early and bored me throughout. After seeing that most reviewers loved the work, I had to investigate why the drama left me so cold? I did something I rarely do: I read all the rave reviews by the critics I most respect. I still don’t see what all the praise is about and I can’t change my reaction to the play. Maybe it was all the elliptical repetitious structure that cover all possibilities as the shift in time?"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...I enjoyed this play because I enjoy the ideas it presented. I can see someone walking out of Constellations with a headache and a desire to never think about the hodgepodge of concepts and timelines thrown at them. It’s easy to lose interest in the complexities and intricacies of a non-linear plot line, but for some, including myself, it’s a puzzle worth putting together. My only wish is that the production went further. While touching and funny at times, it still felt very analytical. I could feel them searching to make different outcomes rather than living in the reality of the new scene. Even with a topic I love and a run time under 90 minutes, there were still too many opportunities to completely lose interest in what was happening on stage."
Around The Town Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...These are solid actors, with superb direction taking us on a journey that might have more meaning to the audience if they truly understood the words as they were spoken. For me, the 80 minutes (no intermission) might have been better off being 60 minutes. I know that there were audience members who lost focus on the story telling somewhere around the half-way mark, and that may have lost some of them for the ending, which was a thing of beauty. I would have loved to rate this show higher, but due to my finding myself bored at times, could not , in all honesty do this. I would love to hear back from readers on your take."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...That the two of these seemingly mismatched young people find similarities in their unexpected love, as well as the necessary emotional support for each other through the poetic dialogue of this drama, is a real testament to both Payne’s script and Jonathan Berry’s superb, economical direction. He’s brought his actors through the darkness of the night and up into sky. Mr. Berry’s guided two terrific actors to find their path to the stars, to the constellations."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...I was both impressed and entertained by the Steppenwolf production and especially filled with admiration for Jessie Fisher's versatile and assured performance. But the show may not be for everybody. Some viewers could find the rapid-fire scene changes confusing and a lot of visual and vocal activity adding up to not very much. In short, they may be bored."
The Fourth Walsh - Somewhat Recommended
"...Although I appreciate Payne's innovative storytelling, I wanted longer and fewer scenarios. It's the same trouble I have with short stories. Once I'm interested in a particular interaction, I want it to play out completely. CONSTELLATIONS is a vast sampling of the limitless choices a person makes in a lifetime. The press release describes this expansive concept as 'being alive in the universe'. I like that."
Dueling Critics - Highly Recommended
"...A lovely two-hander, beautifully performed by Jessie Fisher and Jon Michael Hill under Jonathan Berry's direction. A theoretical physicist (Fisher) and a bee-keeper (Hill) come together and fall apart repeatedly as proof of the physicist's point that there are an infinite number of possibilities in life. Smart without being showy and emotional without being sappy."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Jonathan Berry's excellent direction paces the scenes seamlessly and yet makes the characters' verbal feats perfectly clear to the audience. Jessie is brainy, articulate. Roland, although coming from a different background, is serious and thoughtful as he listens to her conjectures on life and relativity. After leaving the play, I could not get it out of my mind. And the more I thought about Constellations, the clearer it seemed that Marianne's and Roland's story could not have been more lucid or more beautifully constructed by playwright Payne."
PlaylistHQ - Highly Recommended
"...The actors perform fantastically. They expertly navigate multiple universes. With just a slight change of tone and a new word or two, they manage to create a completely different feeling for each world. The set is also unique. It looks like constellations and like brain synapses firing. The entire production is world class."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...This is quite simply a brilliant play and a magnificent night of theatre. It's certainly one of the most intimate productions I've seen at Steppenwolf in many years, if not one of the best. Honing in on our cosmological themes, "Constellations" is truly a universal play with a close personal feel to it. It's intricate enough to appeal to scientific minds while also being immensely accessible to a general audience. I, for one, found myself engrossed by this piece - never has 80 minutes flown by so quickly, or packed more into it than most do in 3 hours."
