THE MOST IMPORTANT and difficult stories that define our lives and shift who we think we are, are never told chronologically. They can’t be. Some of the most astonishingly wise theatre-making takes that give-and-take between people who know one another intimately, that dialogue which is like feeling a broken tooth with your tongue, and explores it. Again and again. From a myriad of different directions. You will experience the madness of conversation and the mystery and devastation of what-ifs in Jay Pather’s direction of Nick Payne’s Constellations, which is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton, until 11 July 2026.

Local regular theatre audiences may not be strangers to the work. It was performed some 12 years ago, under the directorial hand of Alan Swerdlow. Here, with Mwenya Kabwe opposite Mark Elderkin, a completely mesmerising and different kind of magic happens. It’s a tale of love and loss, of hereditary issues and how the brain works. It’s about quantum physics, chance and the mystery and candour of how bees live their lives. It’s about Marianne and Roland. She is a cosmologist at Sussex University. He is a bee keeper.

Featuring a filmic set, a flawless choreographic energy and a physical set that plays again and again with simplicity, reflection and transparency, the work will cast you into the mysterious interstices that could be about the stars in the sky or the blips on a medical scan. They’re about the way in which thought processes could vie in the direction of the surreal or the ridiculous and yet hold tight to their basic significance. It’s about how you can laugh and cry at the manifestation of brokenness, because you know what it is to be imperfect. And afraid of whatever comes next.

But it is in the crisp performance, the impeccable timing and the energy between Kabwe and Elderkin that render this work unforgettable. If you have loved and lost, if you have watched an illness become something that overflows the margins of being, if you have had the courage to hold the hand of your loved one and just let them breathe, when all you’ve wanted is an answer to a whole lot of terrifying medical questions, this play will speak to you. And it will haunt you.

In the dialogue between light and dark, skeins of thread which bind one person to their world, decisions untaken and taken in millions of different permutations, something throbs and lives and is about the uncertainty we all face in being in this world. This play, performed with the gravitas of two giants, is one of the best you may have the privilege of seeing in a long time. It’s a ten out of ten production.

Constellations is written by Nick Payne and directed by Jay Pather. Performed by Mark Elderkin and Mwenya Kabwe, it features design by Wolf Britz (production and lighting), Michaeline Wessels (costumes), Susan Danford (accent coach), Karen Logan (visual display). It is produced by How Now Brown Cow and stage managed by Regina Dube Shubane assisted by Melidah Thakadu, with technical management by Loftus Mohale assisted by Reggie Mathebe. It is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton until 11 July 2026.