CONSTELLATIONS by Nick Payne Set for Rubicon Theatre Company Beginning This Month

Rubicon Theatre will continue its 2024/2025 Dare to Dream Season with the Central Coast premiere of CONSTELLATIONS, a romantic drama by Award-winning playwright Nick Payne from February 19 – March 9, 2025, at Rubicon's Karyn Jackson Theatre, 1006 E. Main Street, located in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District.

Directed by Jonathan Fox, Constellations is a two-character play that explores love, fate, and the infinite possibilities of human connection. The cast includes Brit Tom Ainsley (“The Royals,” “Versailles” and Hulu's “How I Met Your Father”) and Kodi Jackman (Boston Court's A Going Away Party Play, A Noise Within's Shakespeare Repertory).

About the Play

What if one moment—one meeting—could alter the course of your life? In Constellations, a theoretical physicist named Marianne and a beekeeper named Roland cross paths at a party, sparking a relationship that unfolds across a series of alternate realities. With each choice and action leading to multiple divergent outcomes, Payne's profound and poetic script challenges audiences to consider the power of free will, the fragility of human connection, and the vastness of possibility.

This Olivier Award-winning play is a touching, humorous, and deeply philosophical look at the way relationships are shaped by fate and choice. A true theatrical event, Constellations invites audiences on an emotional journey through parallel universes, capturing the extraordinary richness of love and life itself. As Variety describes, "Short and sweet and strangely haunting…with each iteration Roland and Marianne grow closer to one another – and become more important to us. And by the end of the play, we're fully invested in their lives. All of them."

Says Director Jonathan Fox, “Constellations is a romantic comedy at heart, but the romance story in this play is refracted through the lens of alternate universes, wherein the two lovers are faced with disparate decisions and sets of circumstances.” Fox continues, “One comes away with the sensation that life is full of infinite possibilities. It's one of the most fascinating plays I've had the pleasure to work on, and I'm so grateful to Rubicon for inviting me on to direct it.”

Production History

Constellations premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2012 before transferring to the West End, where it won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play. The play made its Broadway debut in 2015 starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, earning multiple Tony and Drama League Award nominations. A celebrated 2021 West End revival, featuring four rotating casts, won the Olivier Award for Best Revival. The New Yorker called it "a wholly satisfying and complete emotional journey…eloquent and mysterious, yet deeply real."

“We are so thrilled to bring Constellations to our audiences,” says Karyl Lynn Burns, Rubicon's Co-Founder & Producing Artistic Director. “This play is a beautifully crafted, emotionally rich story that explores love and the infinite possibilities of human connection. It is a perfect fit for our Dare to Dream Season, encouraging us to embrace every moment and the choices that shape our lives.”

Cast & Creative Team

Tom Ainsley (Roland) is thrilled to make his Rubicon Theatre debut in Constellations. A graduate of the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, his career has spanned stage and screen, earning acclaim for his roles in Simon Stephens' Punk Rock, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, and the Tennessee Williams classic Vieux Carré. Television audiences will recognize Ainsley from his work on BBC's “Doctors,” "The Royals," and “Versailles," but he is perhaps best known for his starring role as Charlie in Hulu's original sitcom "How I Met Your Father." Originally from Scarborough, England, he credits his early involvement in local theatre for sparking his lifelong passion for storytelling and remains passionate about advocating for mental health awareness. 

Kodi Jackman (Marianne) is a graduate of The Guildford School of Acting. Recent stage credits include the World Premiere of A Going Away Party Play at Boston Court, Much Ado About Nothing and All's Well That Ends Well at A Noise Within, The Wickhams at Ensemble Theatre Company, A Few Good Men at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, Measure for Measure at Shakespeare on the Deck, Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare Orange County, and Woyzeck at the New Orleans Fringe. Jackman was also a member of New Orleans Shakespeare Festival's touring company Shakespeare on the Road. She is the co-host of Shake Shake Shake – a podcast on Classics, Cocktails and Conscious Casting.

Jonathan Fox (Director) is thrilled to be at Rubicon. He formerly served as Santa Barbara Ensemble Theatre Company's artistic director for 17 years, during which time he saw the company through a period of great expansion, including the development of the New Vic Theater. His ETC productions of American Son, The Invisible Hand, and Bad Jews traveled to Frankfurt, Germany. Other European productions include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Streetcar Named Desire, Visiting Mr. Green, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The English Theatre Frankfurt, and Old Wicked Songs, Crimes of the Heart, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Vienna English Theatre. After leaving ETC, he worked with the Santa Barbara Jewish Federation on development of the play Spilkes by Barbara Gural and directed Lost in Yonkers for Santa Barbara City College. Fox spent 12 years with Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, which he helped establish in 1994. He served as Managing Director of the company and subsequently became its Artistic Director. His 2006 production of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was profiled in American Theatre Magazine, as was his festival celebrating the centennial of Samuel Beckett. He directed Opera Santa Barbara's 2019 production of Eugene Onegin and 2014 production of The Consul. He just completed his sixth collaboration with the Santa Barbara Symphony. Fox received his M.F.A. from Columbia University and is a recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. He has served as an adjunct faculty member in theatre departments at UCSB, Columbia University, University of Utah, and Monmouth University.

Nick Payne (Playwright) is an award-winning British playwright and screenwriter, renowned for his intellectually and emotionally compelling works on the West End and Broadway. A graduate of the University of York and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Payne gained early recognition with If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet, which premiered in 2009. Constellations premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2012 before transferring to the West End and Broadway, where it received numerous accolades, including the Oliver and Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Payne's other notable works include Elegy, IThe Same Deep Water as Me and Incognito (for which Rubicon presented the West Coast Premiere). In addition to his theatre work, Payne has written for film and television, including the BBC drama series “Wanderlust.” Payne's distinctive ability to weave profound philosophical themes with deeply personal storytelling has cemented his reputation as one of the most innovative playwrights of his generation.

The design and Production Team for Constellations at Rubicon is as follows: FRANÇOIS-PIERRE COUTURE (Scenic & Lighting Designer), MARC ANTONIO PRITCHETT (Sound Design & Original Composition), ABRA PILAR FLORES(Costume Designer), Patrick Vest (Fight & Intimacy Choreography), HANNAH RAYMOND (Production Stage Manager), STEPHANIE COLTRIN (Associate Artistic Director/Casting), JULIA DONLON (Production Manager) (and JIMMY CALLAHAN (Technical Director).

About Rubicon Theatre Company 

Rubicon Theatre has been described as “the rising star of the Southern California cultural constellation.” The not-for-profit professional regional theatre company has reached more than 550,000 attendees and more than 54,000 students. Rubicon serves area residents and visitors with innovative productions of classic and contemporary plays, as well as a wide array of educational programs and events. Acclaimed by critics and industry professionals, the company has received the L.A. Drama Critics Margaret Harford Special Award for “Sustained Excellence,” Drama Desk Awards for the Off-Broadway productions of The Best is Yet to Come and Daddy Long Legs and has won more than 20 Ovation Awards from the L.A. Stage Alliance. 

Just prior to the pandemic, Rubicon transferred three shows to New York (Wiesenthal – Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award nominations; Lonesome Traveler – Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award nominations; and Daddy Long Legs (Drama Desk Award). Rubicon has welcomed a steady stream of high-profile actors and directors to the stage, including BRUNO and Odiseo Bichir, Alison Brie, SUSAN CLARK, Dana Delany, Conchata Ferrell, Bonnie Franklin, Harold Gould, Joel Grey, Larry Hagman, Bill Irwin, Stacy Keach, Jack Lemmon, Amanda McBroom, Ted Neeley, Lauren Patten, Paul Provenza, Linda Purl, Rondi Reed, John Ritter, Joe Spano, Bruce Weitz, Lillias White and others. Company members are George Ball, Joseph Fuqua, Joe Spano and Jenny Sullivan.                   

Based in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District, just blocks from the Pacific Ocean, Rubicon resides in a 185-seat historic church built in the 1920s. In this renovated historic landmark, audience members are never further than 10 rows from the stage on the main floor.

True to the company's name and the vision of artistic directors Karyl Lynn Burns and JAMES O'NEIL, Rubicon has created an environment where commitment and risk are encouraged, and where artists are nurtured and respected. As a result, the company has gained a reputation for producing invigorating interpretations of the classics and for supporting the development of new works. Rubicon presents at least one World Premiere each season, as well as readings of works-in-progress. 

Deeply rooted in the region it serves, Rubicon offers extensive outreach programs, including daytime matinees for high school students, after-school and weekend programs for at-risk youth, and summer musical theatre, drama, and technical theatre camps. 

A board of directors of prominent social and civic leaders governs Rubicon under the leadership of President DOUG HALTER and Honorary Chair Rosa Lee Measures. The company is also supported by an advisory group of regional ambassadors and a volunteer auxiliary.

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