POSSIBLE WORLDS by John Mighton. Finborough Theatre to 15 December.

London

POSSIBLE WORLDS
by John Mighton

The Steam Industry at The Finborough Theatre To 15 December 2001
Runs 1hr 20min No interval

TICKETS 020 7373 3842
Review Timothy Ramsden 2 December

Stimulating, exciting, provocative – the London Fringe at its very best.Years ago, mere arts student that I was, I told a Maths. Teacher how flat his subject was. No, he replied, it's really very romantic. Just think of the idea of a thousand miles per hour.

John Mighton is Canadian, a playwright and a lecturer in Maths and Physics. The nationality links him to Robert Lepage, in whose works scientific concepts such as Continental Drift take on romantic possibilities. So I hope it's not just my limitations that make Possible Worlds seem a whirl of speculative maybes rather than sure and firm-set ideas.

Mighton has certainly written something that could work as a film, though in the process the police element, an investigation of dead bodies whose brains have been extracted without any obvious aperture, would probably be souped up. On stage I detected no explanation of how the non-physical trepanning had been accomplished.

But such a plot glitch scarcely matters. This is a theatre piece, not a wannabe filmscript. Key to the play's cunning construction is Louise, a rat's brain kept alive and fed electrical impulses to make it believe it's still operating, desiring and fulfilling its desires, within a real live rat. What if the human mind's like that? Do we slip between multiple existences? Or do we just dream this? Is a larger consciousness stimulating us in the way the Scientist's electricity fools the rat brain? And if so, what is this 'us' that's so easily fooled?

Mighton takes us through the existence, or dream of an existence, of George who slips between various experiences with a dreamlike fluidity, at once inexplicable yet rational-seeming. Catriona Craig's reliably acted production catches the reality of events while grabbing us with a sense of mystery as to how the pieces fit together, and what the picture will be like when they are sorted. In the process ideas are sparked about the nature of creativity and the imagination, while delivering a coherent sci-fi crime story. Whatever version of existence he's in. George encounters the same woman, so it could be a love story too.

And, a second glance at the Finborough programme reveals, Possible Worlds has been filmed, by Robert Lepage. Or, in another existence, did I already know that?

Williams: Jonathan Race
Berkley: Sean Graham
George: Nick Barnes
Joyce: Alys Torrance
Interviewer/Scientist/Guide/Doctor/Caretaker: Jonathan Tanner

Director: Catriona Craig
Designer: Rebecca Bevan
Environment Design: Fiona Hankey
Original Structure Design: Katja Handt
Lighting: Liz Small
Sound: Adam Collyer, Neil Saffer

2001-12-04 00:30:23