Jack Studio Theatre – until 17 May 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
This scintillating revival of Nick Payne’s beautiful love story is staged with a beautiful simplicity.
Beekeeper Roland (Freddy Williams) and physicist Marianne (Costanza Pucci Di Montaltino) meet at a barbeque. Their relationship plays out through multiple possibilities and universes towards a tragic end. Payne’s exploration of the effects of a different choice or chance can have in life cleverly portrays varying iterations of Roland and Marianne’s relationship in multiple universes. Dialogue is repeated with different outcomes or attitudes, there are some humorous dead ends and a darker vision of the future.
George Derry’s precise and insightful direction keeps the premise clear, with the simple but wonderfully effective use of hanging mirrors reflecting the actors and audience a visual reminder of the multiple possibilities at any given time. (Although Marianne also explains that time doesn’t exist at an atomic level so their love will endure.) Summer Keeling and Tasmin Wickmerante’s lighting signals changes in universes clearly and the intimacy of the space makes the production more heartbreaking as the couple’s stories evolve.
Freddy Williams is a warm and lovable Roland, playing wonderfully against Costanza Pucci Di Montaltino’s initially more standoffish Marianne. They play the awkwardness with great humour, and Marianne’s gradual mellowing as she becomes more comfortable (in some universes) is delightful. The actors’ chemistry is astonishing, the pair portray the excitement, silliness, frustration, anger and despair of the characters in a beautifully natural way, never veering into melodrama. Both shift body language and vocal tone with masterful subtly as the play shifts between universes, and the result is captivating.