Photos

Photos: Eminent panel dissect Payne’s Constellations

| London's West End |

3 December 2012

A physicist, philosopher, playwright and bee-keeper may seem an unlikely combination, but such was the panel for a fascinating post-show Q&A following Constellations at the Duke of York’s Theatre on Friday (30 November).

Nick Payne‘s award-winning two-hander, billed as a romantic comedy, has transferred to the West End following its premiere in the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.

The play centres on the relationship between bee-keeper Roland (Rafe Spall) and cosmology
academic Marianne (Sally Hawkins).

PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM

After the performance, Payne was joined by philosopher AC Grayling,
physicist Ben Allanach and real-life beekeeper Steve Benbow in an
enlightening discussion chaired by Royal Court literary manager Chris
Campbell.

Highlights ranged from discussions of bee behaviour to overviews of
multiverse and string theory and even a pun, courtesy of AC Grayling
(“will it become a bee movie?”).

Payne, who at 29 became the youngest ever writer to win the Evening
Standard’s Best Play award last month, revealed the play had been
sparked by a documentary on physics, while Grayling and Allanach
welcomed the play’s accessible marriage of science and art.

Constellations continues at the Duke of York’s until 5 January 2013.