Are we part of a multiverse? Do we have we choice? Is there really free will or is everything predestined? A professional beekeeper and a quantum cosmologist meet. A relationship develops. Nick Payne explores what happens to them in tiny scenes, constantly developing his theme that at any given moment several outcomes co-exist simultaneously and that every decision they make (and do not make) exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes. The same scene is repeated over and over again with fractionally different outcomes. The permutations are subtle and endless.
The beekeeper is anxious to understand why he’s here and what it is he’s meant to spend his life doing. The play, intellectually buoyant, lasts just over an hour. The audience sits round a square stage which is completely bare. The auditorium is filled with white balloons of variety of sizes, hanging from the ceiling, a galaxy in its own right. There are just the two actors, directed by Michael Longhurst. The sharp-witted Sally Hawkins and the laid-back Rafe Spall are in perfect rapport. How did they learn their lines? How do they remember which sequence they are in? It must be a nightmare.