The revival of Nick Payne's high-concept romance play is in full swing at The Barn Theatre in Cirencester, so I went to check it out. 

I've been going to The Barn Theatre for some time now, as it's only a short drive up the A419, and I've always been more than impressed by the productions it puts on, and Constellations is certainly no exception. 

Faye Brooks and Tom Lorcan star as the only two characters string theorist Marianne and bee-keeper Roland, who have a chance meeting, and then spend the rest of their lives entwined together. 

But this isn't just a straightforward love story, and nor is it a straightforward play for Brooks and Lorcan to sink their teeth into, but what unfolds onstage is a jig-saw puzzle of parallel universes,

We see that the choices Marianne and Roland make, even the relatively small ones, can have profound effects on the rest of their relationship, altering the outcome and mood of each moment, and forcing the two actors to repeat a lot of dialogue and behaviour but make nuanced changes

And it is this relationship that the rest of the production is based around, there's no flashy staging, no substantial use of props or music/sound. The chemistry between Brooks and Lorcan, as Marianne and Roland's story unfolds, is what the play demands you notice. 

The story presents itself as mystery in some respects, with a series of scenes and their multiple possibilities acted out around a central moment between the pair that slowly unravels to reveal its full meaning, and the tragedy within it. 

It also deftly handles quantum physics in a way that doesn't become overbearing or hard to follow, weaving it into the character's themselves and allowing you to understand just enough of it to know that that's what we're seeing. 

But the real strength of the play, aside from Brooks and Lorcan's strong performances, is its emotion. It handles, time and memory and death and inevitability and big questions about free will, but manages to make you truly feel each of these significant subjects and the weight of them on the character onstage. 

As a love story, it's messy and complicated, it is sad at times but it's also beautiful. In a world where infinite outcomes are possible, but death is guaranteed to be the end for us all, it is a miracle that many of us find someone to share that time with.

And, it's a miracle that there's a theatre near Swindon people can watch productions like this, and it's running until May 18.