“Constellations,” August 5 through 14

Thursday, August 5, through Saturday, August 14

Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, 311 Riverview Drive, Clinton IA

Lauded by The New Yorker as “a singular astonishment” and by Variety as “short and sweet and strangely haunting,” the critically acclaimed, Tony-nominated romance Constellations wraps up the 2021 season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, its August 5 through 14 run demonstrating why the New York Times was inspired to ask, “Who knew that higher physics could be so sexy, so accessible – and so emotionally devastating?”

Constellations asks audiences to suppose that life exists in a multiverse: a set of parallel existences that contain infinitely different futures. The possibilities in our lives are quite literally endless, and every possible event that could happen does happen, in one universe or another. And if two lovers meet – are drawn together in every version of existence – every possible happy ending and heartbreak that could befall them, at some point, will. In author Nick Payne's play, Marianne, a physicist, and Roland, a beekeeper, meet at a party. They hit it off, and go for a drink. Or perhaps they don’t. They go home together, or maybe they go their separate ways. Perhaps Marianne is engaged to someone else, perhaps Roland is. Maybe she breaks his heart, maybe he breaks hers. Perhaps they come together and their love story can finally take root and grow, or perhaps it will be tragically cut short. Constellations consequently explores how even the smallest change in our lives can dramatically alter the course we take, creating a spellbinding exploration of love, science, quantum theory, and infinite possibility for heartbreak or for hope.

Directing Constellations for the Clinton Showboat is the company's producing artistic director James Beaudry, who also helmed the theatre's July production of All Shook Up, and the play's two-person cast is composed of Alexandra E. Palkovic as Marianne and Jess Ford as Roland. Both performers worked with Beaudry when he served as artistic director for Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse – Palkovic enjoyed leading roles in Sweet Charity and Cabaret; Ford in Sunset Boulebvard and Monty Python's Spamalot – and describing the season-ending presentation, Beaudry says, “Most plays have a clear beginning, middle and end. In Constellations, we fall in love with this couple when we meet them, and, as we see different versions of how their lives together might play out, we become more and more certain they're meant to be together – no matter what the universe or multiverse throws at them.

“The unshakable core of their love story,” Beaudry continues, “is what drives them through the laughs and tears, the better or worse, the sickness and health – and everything else that adds up to a relationship. The result on stage is one of the most hopeful and life-affirming plays I’ve ever worked on.”

The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Constellations runs August 5 through 14, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays and Wednesdays at 3 p.m. Admission is $18-25, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)242-6760 and visiting ClintonShowboat.org.