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Girl meets boy. They fall in love. They fall out of love. They get back together. Yet, somehow, they seemed robbed of their happily ever after.
For most of us, it’s a story we’ve heard a thousand times. It may even be a little too close to reality. But in the hands of Teater Pandora, it’s the makings of a beautifully devastating performance art.
At Museum MACAN last December, Teater Pandora unveiled its local production of Constellations, adapted from Nick Payne’s original play, which premiered in London 12 years ago.
The story about love, loss and grief follows two characters as they explore their lives through the concept of multiverses (not the Marvel kind). It invites audiences to ask themselves what is perhaps the scariest question to answer: “What if?”
The story and its stars
A constellation is a pattern drawn by stars, much like our parallel lives in alternate universes. When presented different versions of ourselves in multiple universes, the one thing that remains constant is our nature, regardless of nurture.
The production is an Indonesian translation and the first performance of Constellations in Indonesia to be officially recognized by Nick Payne’s licensing agent, Curtis Brown.
The story follows the life of Roland, a beekeeper, and Marianne, a physicist, across different universes, branching off into various timelines.
In one universe, they break up, while in another, they get married. In yet another, Roland betrays Marianne, and in another, Marianne betrays Roland.
All the layers and themes are the same, but Yoga Mohamad, the creative director of Teater Pandora, made an artistic choice: to have three actors play each character at different stages of life.
Yoga classified the actors into three “generations”: those who are employed and married, those who just started working and those who recently graduated from college.
“I wanted to make the audience see that the highest form of love is when we experience the process of love,” Yoga explains.
“Starting from the love that is blue, the happy kind, to the love that will definitely have pain, challenges, and how we survive.”
By showing the different stages of Roland and Marianne as the story progresses, the audience gets three hours of pure theatrical magic. The production elements, such as the highly mobile stage, lighting and music that filled the room at Museum MACAN, were well thought out.
The play was accompanied only by the harmony of piano and strings, but the two instruments somehow conveyed how the two lovers were able to fit so perfectly together despite their different backgrounds.
Until, spoiler alert, a devastating cancer diagnosis ultimately forces them apart.
Sans jubilant songs and elaborate choreography, the raw emotion on stage becomes the show's highlight. There were no curtains, just the stage and dozens of chairs surrounding it, creating an intimate experience.
After the performance ended and the lights came back on, applause engulfed the room, tears were visibly seen and the love became real.
The play only ran from Dec. 13 to 15 at Museum MACAN, but it seems that the feelings it stirred and questions it raised will linger with the audience.
From script to stage
“When I read this script, I immediately clicked, like this script is really good. In Indonesia, no one has ever played this,” Yoga recalled.
Entering its 10th year and 30th production, Teater Pandora’s team wanted to make something celebratory and Constellations felt right.
“Pandora's 10 years have not been smooth. Our path was full of ups and downs. We faced difficulties finding a stage and what to perform, as well as mental and creativity blocks,” Yoga said.
“But we managed to do all of that because we realized the most important thing for us is to do everything with love, or not at all.”
To understand the process of what makes a play successful, we have to rewind and go back to Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), where they first bring the story to life.
From the time Yoga settled on Constellations, the team got to work, from the lighting, music and staging, all the way to the costumes, to find a common thread in their shared vision and passion.
There, in one of the rooms in TIM, the actors made their home. They greeted everyone who came through the door with a friendly camaraderie, like seeing their long-lost best friend. Out of a total of 27 rehearsals for Constellations, 10 were in that room.
However, during one particular night, there was an air of nervousness. A couple of hours earlier, the stage was transported to the museum for the opening night, leaving just some chairs and a single light.
The three months of preparation and two months of rehearsals totaling about 80 hours of practice led to this moment: the last dry run before opening night.
Yoga gathered them in a circle to say a word of prayer and gratitude. He did his best to calm the actors’ nerves. With a few humorous lines, he made them laugh.
A match made in the stars
With the concept of a #MempermainkanRuang (playing the room), the unconventional “moving theater” group has performed in unique spaces in the past like Lucy in the Sky, Hatchi and Publichood Coffee.
For Constellations, the stars aligned to allow Teater Pandora to find a stage amid the artworks displayed at Museum MACAN.
“In the past few years, we've been thinking about what other kinds of public programs we can bring to our audiences,” Nin Djani, curatorial manager and head of education at Museum MACAN, said.
“Then we thought about Teater Pandora, because they always have this unique approach of playing with the space, and I think they would be willing to explore the space as well.”
Describing their collaboration as a “match made in heaven,” the project seemed to signal more partnerships to come in the future for both Yoga and Nin.
“Teater Pandora seeks to create harmony between theater and visual arts at MACAN Museum,” Yoga said. “We want to form an immersive experience, blurring the boundaries between actors and audiences.”
Devotion and standing ovation
If the whole point of the show was to leave the audience with questions and reflections, then Teater Pandora’s Constellations succeeded.
“The play’s concept was both refreshing and thought-provoking, between intellectual and emotional. The multiverse narrative and exploring the infinite possibilities of a relationship felt human, yet fascinating, as if love could be measured alongside theories of time and space,” Andini, 32, an audience member, said.
Another attendee, Firstty, 34, was struck by the play’s depiction of coming to grips with the cancer diagnosis.
“The situation is also challenging for the support system. We can only provide support, but all the decisions rest with the person who is suffering,” she said. “One thing is clear: the most dominant feeling is the fear of being left behind.”
Maybe that is the magic of Constellations. It takes us on a journey across all the different universes to explore all the “what-ifs” even if, in the end, there are things we can’t escape.
The roads not taken may keep us up at night, but how big of a difference will they really make if, after all, our fate is written in the stars?
Sheena Suparman is a writer for The Jakarta Post's Creative Desk. She is based in Jakarta but wishes she could be anywhere else. She’s usually powered by coffee, chips and cheeseburgers.
