80 MINS (NO INTERVAL)
THIS PLAY PREMIERED AT ROYAL COURT THEATRE, LONDON 19 JAN 2012
THIS PRODUCTION OPENED AT WHARF 1 THEATRE, SYDNEY 3 AUG 2023
SUPPORTED BY THE STC ANGELS

Marketing image Rene Vaile

A NOTE FROM OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR KIP WILLIAMS

Ian Michael is one of Australia’s most exciting and visionary young theatre-makers. STC audiences probably know him best from his astonishing performance last year in our co-production of City of Gold, which saw him nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award. What you might not know is that Ian has also been carving out an extraordinary career as a playwright and director, with award-winning productions playing at Black Swan State Theatre Company and Perth’s The Blue Room. He is also a Resident Artist here, where he has been an indelible member of the creative teams for both The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, serving as Associate Director on both. Now Ian makes his STC directorial debut with Constellations and everyone at STC could not be more thrilled – this is the beginning of something very special.

Joining Ian in this endeavour is a first-class design team and two beloved STC regulars – Catherine Văn-Davies (Playing Beatie Bow) and Johnny Carr (Appropriate). Constellations is without doubt one of the best plays of the last fifteen years and the prospect of this remarkable team of theatre makers infusing this text with the spirit of our present moment – a time when unadulterated human connection seems more important than ever – fills me with no end of anticipation. It’s been a privilege to witness this young team craft such an insightful and revelatory production. I hope you are as moved and inspired as I have been.

Kip Williams, Artistic Director and Co-CEO

DIRECTOR'S NOTE: IAN MICHAEL

There are those rare plays that have a unique way of grabbing you before the actual story has begun, like the way Constellations did to me the first time I read it. Before the opening scene, writer Nick Payne has written just one note on the text, "A change in formatting – from Normal to Bold, for instance – indicates a change in universe."

So what might seem at first like your standard "boy meets girl" love story, instantly we discover that this is not at all the case with Constellations. We follow Marianne, the quantum physicist and Roland, the beekeeper, in a criss-crossing of infinite space and time. They meet, we see their first date, joys and fights together, grappling with heartbreak and make ups; with different outcomes each time, representing Marianne’s view that everything exists simultaneously in the multiverse, all the while the inevitably of letting go, the end of something, is looming towards them.

After Constellations premiered in 2012, Nick Payne wrote an article, describing the theory of the multiverse as "…endless 'copies' of every single one of us are right now living wildly different and slightly similar lives without ever knowing which of us is better or worse off as a result. Everything that can happen does happen and is happening right at this very moment."

In that same article, he opens up about how Constellations was conceived. At the time of being commissioned to write a new play by the Royal Court Theatre, Nick met a woman who he would later marry. At the same time, he was grieving the tragic loss of his father and stumbled upon theoretical physicist Brian Greene’s documentary The Elegant Universe and found solace in the theory, saying he was "…seduced by the multiverse because of what it meant for me in light of my father’s death. For months, I struggled continually with the startling finality of his absence. I would eventually try to forget him because calling upon his memory would become too difficult." Nick also ruminates on the play being his attempt at "dramatising the dilemma of the urge to remember versus the need to forget."

As we are transported through parallel universes, Nick’s script encapsulates grief, connection, love, existence, free will and choice all in the normality of daily life and offers us a relationship in its entire gamut. I am constantly taken aback by the form and structure of Constellations, the fragments of Marianne and Roland’s lives and existence told in repetition. I hope as you witness them, they challenge your perceptions of time and open up the reflections of your own life, of the choices you made or never made, and affirm your place in the universe.

From literary texts on the multiverse and cosmology, to Beyoncé music videos and Quantum Physics for Dummies, the process of making this production is one that I will carry with me for a long time and has required all of the people within it to be open to the absolute; fearlessly and collaboratively. To Isabel, Benjamin, James, Charmian, Jack, Pratha, Nigel, Tim and Ayah, and to Ryan and the production teams, I am eternally grateful and inspired by how much of yourselves you have given to our production and thank you for your visions in building this together.

Catherine Văn-Davies and Johnny Carr are two people that I’ve been desperate to work with for such a long time. This play demands of its performers to meet it head on, to challenge it, to bring deep truth and the complexities of life, in every moment and, more often than not, all at the same time and they do more than rise to it. I pinch myself each day that I had the opportunity to make this production with them and there aren’t enough words to measure their generosity to the work, the trust in me and each other, and the craft they’ve brought in bringing it all to life. Thank you for holding this story with so much care and infinite possibility.

CAST & CREATIVES

NICK PAYNE
Playwright

Nick is a playwright and screenwriter who won the prestigious George Devine Award in 2009 with his play If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet. It was produced at the Bush Theatre in October 2009, directed by Josie Rourke and starring Rafe Spall. In 2012 it went to the Roundabout Theatre, New York, starring Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by Michael Longhurst.

Nick studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama and the University of York, making his debut at the Royal Court theatre in September 2010 with his comedy Wanderlust. In January 2012, Nick's play Constellations opened at the Royal Court Upstairs starring Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins and directed by Michael Longhurst. Constellations transferred to the West End in November 2012 where it received universally glowing reviews. It also won the Evening Standard Best Play Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. In 2015 Constellations transferred to Broadway. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, and directed by Michael Longhurst, it won outstanding reviews. Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Constellations opens in August of 2023.

Jake Gyllenhaal carried on to star in Nick's play A Life, which ran at The Public Theater and on Broadway in 2019 and was nominated for several Tony Awards.

Nick’s other plays include Elegy, Incognito, Blurred Lines, The Same Deep Water As Me, Lay Down Your Cross, Electra, One Day When We Were Young, Switzerland, and Flourless.

Nick also writes for film and TV. His debut series Wanderlust starred Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh as Joy and Alan, a couple in search of ways to save their marriage. The show was produced by Drama Republic and directed by Luke Snellin, airing on BBC One in the UK and on Netflix for the rest of the world.

Nick adapted Julian Barnes's The Sense Of An Ending for BBC Films which was released in 2017 with Jim Broadbent starring and Ritesh Batra directing. In 2021 he also wrote the feature adaptation of Jojo Moyes novel The Last Letter from Your Lover staring Shailene Woodley. He is currently developing film and television projects in the UK and the US.

IAN MICHAEL
Director

Ian Michael is the Richard Wherett Fellow at Sydney Theatre Company (2022-2023).

A proud Noongar man, Ian makes his directorial debut at Sydney Theatre Company with Constellations. He has carved out a career as an actor, director and writer following his graduation from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

For STC, he was Assistant Director on Kip Williams’ adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray (2020-2023) and Associate Director on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2022) which also toured to Perth Festival and Adelaide Festival, Assistant Director to Shari Sebbens for The 7 Stages of Grieving (2021). In 2023, he will also be Assistant Director to Imara Savage on The Seagull. For Black Swan State Theatre Company, Ian directed The Bleeding Tree by Angus Cerini (2023) and was the Associate Director on The Cherry Orchard and Assistant Director on Skylab (with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company) and made his directorial debut with The Bleeding Tree by Angus Cerini for The Blue Room Theatre (2021).

Ian’s acting credits include The Tempest, City of Gold (with Black Swan State Theatre Company), Cloudstreet, Blak Cabaret (Malthouse), Our Town, Cloudstreet and Let the Right One In (Black Swan State Theatre Company); The Kid (Melbourne Theatre Company/Melbourne Ring Cycle), The Noongar Shakespeare Project (Yirra Yaakin); HART (She Said Theatre) and Northwest of Nowhere (Ilbijerri Theatre Company). As a writer, his credits include York (with Chris Isaacs) for Black Swan State Theatre Company; Another Day in the Colony (Critical Stages/Paines Plough) and HART (with Seanna van Helten).

He was a Resident Artist at Black Swan from 2018-2020, their Artistic Associate and Curator of the Maali Festival (2021) and a Besen Family Artist at Malthouse in 2017.

Ian has won numerous awards and nominations for his work, including a nomination for Best Performer in a Supporting Role in a Mainstage Production at the 2022 Sydney Theatre Awards, The Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting (York), at the 2022 PAWA Awards Ian won Outstanding Direction of an Independent Production and Best Independent Production (The Bleeding Tree) and has been nominated for Best Actor for Our Town and Let the Right One In, at the 2021 The Blue Room Awards, he won the Award for Direction and Members Choice (The Bleeding Tree), CHASS Australia Prizes, Green Room Awards (HART), Melbourne Fringe Awards, Adelaide Fringe Awards and he was a 2019 Western Australian of the Year finalist.

JOHNNY CARR 
Roland

Sydney Theatre Company: Appropriate, The Real Thing. Other Theatre: Melbourne Theatre Company: The Architect, John and What Rhymes with Cars and Girls. Belvoir/Malthouse/STCSA/Black Swan State Theatre Company: The Events. Malthouse: Edward II. Bell Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, The Dream. Daniel Schlusser Ensemble/Melbourne International Arts Festival: M+ M. Griffin Theatre Company: The Boys. Film: Strange Creatures, Eye Contact. TV: includes Wellmania, Five Bedrooms , Summer Love, The Secret Daughter, Stories I Want to Tell You in Person, Rush. Awards:Recipient of the 2013 Marten Bequest Travel Scholarship for Acting. Training: VCA, École Philippe Gaulier.

CATHERINE VĂN-DAVIES
Marianne

Sydney Theatre Company: Playing Beatie Bow, No Pay? No Way!, White Pearl (with Riverside's National Theatre of Parramatta), Going Down (with Malthouse). Other Theatre: Red Line: A Streetcar Named Desire. Griffin Theatre Company: Sex Magick, Turquoise Elephant. Bell Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, The Misanthrope, The Merchant of Venice. Chunky Move: Complexity of Belonging (with Falk Richter), Belvoir: An Enemy of The People, Back at the Dojo, The Kiss. Apocalypse Theatre Company: Angels in America. Little Ones Theatre: The Happy Prince, Dracula, Dangerous Liaisons. Arthur: The Myth Project: Twin, Cut Snake, Superhero Training Academy, Waltzing Woolloomooloo: The Tale of Frankie Jones. MKA: sex. violence.blood.gore. Milk Crate Theatre: Various productions. TV: The Claremont Murders, The Twelve, I’m Fine It’s Fine, Barons, Amazing Grace, Hungry Ghosts, The Letdown, Pet Killer. Positions: Co-Artistic Director of Red Line Productions. Awards: 2020 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor in an Independent Production (Angels in America), 2020 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Ensemble (White Pearl), 2021 Equity Ensemble Award (Hungry Ghosts). Training: QUT, HB Studio (NYC). Proud member of Actors’ Equity.

ISABEL HUDSON
Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: Hubris & Humiliation. As Associate Designer: Fun Home (with MTC). As Assistant Designer: Three Sisters. Other Theatre: As Set Designer: MTC: Torch the Place. Hayes Theatre Co: Young Frankenstein, American Psycho, Cry-Baby.  As Costume Designer: Crossroads Live: The Mousetrap (and Associate Set Designer). As Designer: Belvoir Theatre: Blessed Union, Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing. Griffin Theatre Company: Pony, Ghosting the Party. NewTheatricals: Darkness. Sydney Festival: Maureen: Harbinger of Death. Pinchgut Opera: Farnace. Hayes Theatre Co: Razorhurst, The View Upstairs, She Loves Me. 25A: Jess & Joe Forever, Tuesday. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Let the Right One In, The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. Seymour Centre: The Shifting Heart, Blackrock. KXT: Dry Land, She Rode Horses Like The Stock Exchange, The Walworth Farce, A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing, You Got Older. Old Fitz: King Of Pigs, Eurydices. Old 505 Theatre: Little Borders. Sydney Opera House: Chamber Pot Opera (also Edinburgh Festival and St Petersburg seasons). NIDA: Mr Burns. ATYP: Intersection, Journey’s End. Outhouse Theatre Co: The Rolling Stone. Ensemble Theatre: The Plant. Hothouse Theatre: Hurt. As Associate Set Designer: Moulin Rouge Australia and Korea. As Assistant Designer: Opera Australia: The Merry Widow, My Fair Lady. Positions: Lecturer at NIDA in Design for Performance. Awards: Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship 2022. Thelma Afford Award 2022, APDG Award for Best Set Design 2022 (American Psycho). Sydney Theatre Award for Best Set Design of an Independent Production 2019 and 2018 (American Psycho, Cry-Baby). Training: NIDA, UNSW. 

BENJAMIN BROCKMAN
Lighting Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: Queensland Theatre Company: Family Values. Griffin Theatre Company: Family Values, Splinter, Replay, Diving for Pearls. Riverside’s National Theatre of Paramatta: Things Hidden Since the Foundation Of The World (AUS/UK), Lady Tabouli, Girl in the Machine, The Girl/The Woman, The Sorry Mum Project, Let Me Know When You Get Home. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Overflow, Torch Song Trilogy, Broken, Detroit, Mother Fucker With A Hat, Tinder Box. Hayes Theatre Company: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Carmen Alive or Dead, Razorhurst. Belvoir 25a: Horses, Jess & Joe Forever, Greater Sunrise. Ensemble Theatre: Tribes, The Big Dry, The Plant, Neville’s Island. Pinchgut Opera: Farnace. Critical Stages: Alphabetical Sydney. CDP: Are we there yet?, Guess How Much I Love You, Spot Live On Stage. Sydney Mardi Gras Festival: Sissy Ball 2022, Sissy Ball 2020. Campbelltown Arts Centre: Mirage. Apocalypse: Cleansed, Metamorphoses, Angels in America: Part 1 and 2. bAKEHOUSE: Coram Boy, Dresden, Visiting Hours, The Laden Table, Jatinga. Squabbalogic: Day of the Triffids (development), Good Omens (musical development), Herringbone, Grey Gardens The Musical, Man Of La Mancha. Little Eggs Collective: Symphonie Fantastique. Legs On The Wall: Cat’s Cradle, The Raft, Waters Edge. Shaun Parker & Company: In the Zone, King. Dance Makers Collective: The Rivoli. Green Door Theatre: Omar and Dawn. Steps And Holes: 21 Forester Street, La Voyage. Bontom: Chamber Pot Opera, Chamber Pot Opera (UK).Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards: Best Lighting Design for an Independent Production 2019 (Metamorphoses), Best Lighting Design for an Independent Production 2021 (Symphonie Fantastique). Pronouns: He/They.

JAMES BROWN
Composer & Sound Designer

Sydney Theatre Company: Do not go gentle…, Home, I’m Darling, Rules for Living, The Deep Blue Sea, The Real Thing, Lord of the Flies, Mosquitoes, Who’s the Best? (with Post). Other Theatre: Darlinghurst Theatre: Let the Right One In. CDP: The Midnight Gang. Sport for Jove: Rose Riot. Erth: Winter Camp, The Liminal Hour, Bird. Fox. Monster. Darlinghurst Theatre: In Real Life, Broken. Malthouse: Revolt. She. Said. Revolt Again. Griffin Theatre Company: Smurf in Wanderland, Tribunal. The Farm: Frank Enstein. Post: Ich Nibber Dibber, Oedipus Schmoedipus. Urban Theatre Projects: Home Country. Carriageworks: Lake Disappointment. SOIT (Belgium): Nomads, We Was them, Messiah Run, The Lee Ellroy Show. ATYP: Dignity of Risk (with Shopfront’s Harness Ensemble), House on Fire. Campbelltown Arts Centre: Hole in the Wall. Dance: Queensland Ballet: Tethered. Kristina Chan: A Faint Existence, Mountain. Victoria Hunt: Copper Promises, Tangi Wai. The Australian Ballet: Scope. Sydney Dance Company: Cult of the Titans, Conform. Matthew Day:Thousands, Cannibal, Intermission. Film: We Circle Silently Fungus, Voice Activated, A Brilliant Genocide, Bloodlinks, Brown Lips. TV: The Movement, Top of the Lake, One Day for Peace, Gingersnaps. Games: Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout Shelter.

PRATHA NAGPAL
Assistant Director

Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: As Director and Writer: KXT: Maa Ki Rasoi (My Mother’s Kitchen). 4A: Maa Ki Rasoi (My Mother’s Kitchen). 107 Redfern: Maa Ki Rasoi (My Mother’s Kitchen). As Writer: Q Theatre: Aurat Raj (Woman’s Rule). As Assistant Director: Sydney World Pride 2023: Sunderella. Positions: Young Leader, Shopfront 2023. Other: CALD Advisory Panel, Shopfront. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: She/Her.

NIGEL POULTON
Fight Director & Intimacy Coordinator

Sydney Theatre Company: On the Beach, Do not go gentle..., Fences, Hubris & Humiliation, The Tempest, The Lifespan of a Fact, A Raisin in the Sun, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Top Coat, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Blithe Spirit, Triple X (with Queensland Theatre), Grand Horizons, Appropriate, Playing Beatie Bow, Rules for Living, The Deep Blue Sea, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Lord of the Flies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, How to Rule the World, Mary Stuart, The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two, The Long Forgotten Dream, Blackie Blackie Brown (with Malthouse), A Cheery Soul, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Saint Joan, Three Sisters, Dinner, Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical (with Global Creatures), Black is the New White, Speed-the-Plow, The Golden Age, The Present, Switzerland, Macbeth, Noises Off, Cyrano de Bergerac, Romeo and Juliet, The Removalists, Romeo & Juliet (Education). Other Theatre: includes productions with The Finnish National Ballet, The Australian Ballet, The New York City Ballet, The Metropolitan Opera, Washington Opera, Opera Australia, Cameron Mackintosh, Bell Shakespeare, Circus Oz, MTC, QT, Belvoir, La Boite, Playbox, Kooemba Jdarra. Film: includes Poker Face, Thor: Love and Thunder, Escape from Spiderhead, Operation Rainfall, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Deadline Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, Winter’s Tale, Vikingdom, Salt, I Am Legend, The Bourne Legacy. TV: includes Deadloch, Nautilus, Sea Patrol, The Good Wife, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, 30 Rock, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Positions: Teaching positions at NIDA, ACA, AFTRS, USQ. Awards: Green Room Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Melbourne Stage. Certifications: Certified Intimacy Director & Intimacy Coordinator with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC), Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors; Instructor, Fight Director and past President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors Inc, Honorary Fight Director with Fight.

CHARMIAN GRADWELL
Voice & Text Coach

Sydney Theatre Company: Fences, The Tempest, The Lifespan of a Fact, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Fun Home (with MTC), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mary Stuart, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two, The Long Forgotten Dream, Saint Joan, Blackie Blackie Brown (with Malthouse Theatre), Still Point Turning, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Lethal Indifference, Top Girls, Dinner, The Father (with MTC), Black is the New White, Talk, Chimerica, A Flea in Her Ear, All My Sons, Disgraced, Hay Fever, Arcadia, The Golden Age, King Lear, The Present, Suddenly Last Summer, After Dinner, The Long Way Home, Travelling North, Machinal, Waiting for Godot, Romeo and Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Storm Boy (with Barking Gecko), The Maids, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Sex with Strangers, Under Milk Wood, Gross und Klein, Bloodland, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Uncle Vanya, A Streetcar Named Desire, The War of the Roses, Tot Mom. As Director: The Comedy of Errors. Other Theatre: As Voice & Text Coach: QT: Triple X (with Sydney Theatre Company). Royal Shakespeare Company: The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Canterbury Tales (tour), A Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Days of Significance, Macbeth, Macbeth, The Penelopiad, Noughts and Crosses, The Comedies London Season, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The London Gunpowder Season, Romeo and Juliet, Comedy of Errors. As Dialect Coach:Musicals: Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical (with Global Creatures), Aladdin, Assassins, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Tap Brothers, Xanadu The Musical. As Director/ Trainer: A year with Space 2000 in Kaduna, Nigeria. Film: As Dialect Coach: Elvis, Peter Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Reaching for the Moon, Truth, Ginger & Rosa. Other: Voice trainer for London School of Puppetry. Member of London Shakespeare Workout, which brings Shakespeare into UK prisons. Training: Central School of Speech and Drama.

JACK STARKEY-GILL
Associate Voice & Text Coach

Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: As Voice, Text & Dialect Coach: Bell Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet; Twelfth Night; The Players Touring Company. Disney & Michael Cassel Group: Mary Poppins the Musical. NIDA: Kindness; Festen. ACA: The Libertine. As Director: SAS: Dogg’s Hamlet. As Actor: Bell Shakespeare: Macbeth, The Players Touring Company. CDP Theatre: The 52-Storey Treehouse. Don’t Look Away Theatre: Property of the Clan. Old Fitz: Amuse Bouche. Griffin Theatre Company: 24 Hour Play Project. Film: Marley, Someone. TV: Neighbours. Positions: Lecturer in Voice at NIDA. Lecturer in Voice at ACA. Voice Lecturer at SAS. Voice Coach at SBS Radio. Training: NIDA, VCA.

PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Associate Professor Elizabeth Hovey
Auslan Stage Left
Ashton Jean-Pierre

CORPORATE PARTNERS

Sydney Theatre Company is grateful to our corporate partners for their generous support of theatre and the arts. We applaud their commitment and vision.

Find out more about our current partners.

OUR DONOR COMMUNITY

Thank you STC Angels for your unwavering commitment to our work.

Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Jane & Andrew Clifford
Alan Joyce AC & Shane Lloyd
Gretel Packer AM
Rebel Penfold-Russell OAM
Ruth Ritchie
Rosie Williams & John Grill on behalf of the Serpentine Foundation

Thank you to our donors at all levels, who support a bright future for STC.

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SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Alan Joyce AC (Chair)
Ann Johnson (Deputy Chair)
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Brooke Boney
Mark Coulter
David Craig
Anne Dunn
Heather Mitchell AM
Gretel Packer AM
David Paradice AO
Annette Shun Wah
Kip Williams

See Sydney Theatre Company’s full staff list.