Constellations brings a Matariki love story to the Q Theatre stage from 2 – 19 July. Presented by Silo Theatre and adapted by Nī Dekkers-Reihana, Nick Payne’s acclaimed work is transported to Aotearoa, where te ao Māori is woven in to bring this love story of infinite possibilities home.
Silo’s 2026 presentation of Constellations is the first indigenous version of this award-winning script to be performed in the world.
At 5.37am on Maungawhau, an astrophysicist and a beekeeper meet at a Matariki gathering. Maarire and Rowley. Two strangers. There is a spark. And there isn’t. They fall in love. And they don’t. Both. Everything. Te katoa. Messy, tender, funny, and devastating. Constellations presents love and loss from every angle all at once. But if every moment contains another possibility – which version do we end up living?
“I want it to be romantic and devastating,” says director Nī Dekkers-Reihana (they/them). “Like The Notebook, but if you could see all the versions of it happening at the same time. I want people to leave the theatre not analysing it but feeling it — wanting to turn to someone and say I love you. Or I’m sorry. Or I should have said something differently.”
Constellations offers up a love story scattered across the multiverse with limitless possibilities and theoreticals. In this Aotearoa version, those theoreticals are grounded in place, Maungawhau at dawn, under Matariki skies, in the emotional weather of here. A time of renewal, reflection, and possibility. It becomes not just about what happens in love, but everything that almost did.
Internationally, Constellations has been widely praised for both its intelligence and emotional impact, and has been produced on both Broadway and the West End. The Evening Standard called it “funny, heartbreaking. A sharp, smarty hit of first-class drama.” The Guardian described it as “a Sliding Doors to the power of 100.” The Daily Telegraph called it “the classiest show in the West End,” while Whatsonstage called it “cosmically brilliant.”
The stellar cast features Jarod Rawiri (he/him) and Renaye Tamati (she/her). Together, they bring immediacy, chemistry, and emotional volatility to a relationship that must constantly re-form in front of the audience. Rawiri (Ngāti Porou) is an established screen and stage actor whose work spans The Brokenwood Mysteries, Shortland Street, Fantail, Hope and Wire, and includes numerous Silo productions, UPU, Cellfish, and Angels in America.
Tamati (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Te Atiawa, Ngāi Tahu) is a graduate of The Actors’ Program, with theatre credits across Auckland Theatre Company, Te Pou Theatre, Massive Theatre Company, and Pop-Up Globe’s Māori-language Shakespeare productions, alongside screen roles in The Brokenwood Mysteries and The Gone.
Director Nī Dekkers-Reihana brings a practice shaped by their directing, acting and production work across theatre and screen, including their role in Auckland Theatre Company’s Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking, which is set to tour internationally. Premiering in June, they can be seen in the lead role of the television series Head Girl (based on the poetry of Freya Daly Sadgrove). Constellations is their first mainstage directing project in Tāmaki Makaurau, following a growing body of independent and development theatre.
Silo Theatre’s Artistic Director Sophie Henderson (she/her) says the production continues the company’s commitment to staging influential contemporary international work and letting it shift in response to Aotearoa.
“After A View from the Bridge, we’re interested in what happens when major contemporary plays land here,” she says, “… when those plays are made alive in this place – carrying the weight of extraordinary writing, while also carrying our own voices.”
“Nī has woven te reo Māori through the play so beautifully. Their approach to this script is all about drawing people in, no matter their experience with te reo Māori,” says Sophie Henderson. “When we first reached out to playwright Nick Payne, asking for permission to adapt his words for Aotearoa, he said how touched he was, and said yes overnight!”
The Constellations creative team includes lighting design by Filament Eleven 11, set design by Grace Newton with mentoring from John Verryt, sound by Te Aihe Butler, choreography by Ross McCormack, costume by Tautahi Subritzky, and te reo guidance from Loi Dekkers-Reihana and Nīkau Balme.
Photo credit – Greta van der Star
CONSTELLATIONS
By Nick Payne. Adapted for Aotearoa by Nī Dekkers-Reihana.
2–19 July
Q Theatre, Loft
