Possible Worlds (play)

Possible Worlds, written in 1990 by John Mighton, is part murder mystery, part science-fiction, and part mathematical philosophy, and follows the multiple parallel lives of the mysterious George Barber. At the play's beginning, George is found dead, with his brain missing. Two detectives set out to uncover the truth behind his grisly death, and stumble upon several strange characters.

Mighton, a mathematician from University of Toronto's Fields Institute, brought his considerable professional experience to bear on the writing of the play.

The play bears many conceptual similarities to Tom Stoppard's Hapgood, a play about spies and secret agents that takes place primarily in the men's changingroom of a municipal swimming baths.

In the year 2000, a film adaptation of Possible Worlds was released. The film, directed by Robert Lepage and starring Tom McCamus and Tilda Swinton, garnered wide critical acclaim, won two Genie Awards, and was nominated for a further four. Possible Worlds was published in 1988 by Playwrights Canada Press.

The author, John Mighton, is a mathematician and philosopher. His plays tend to meld science, drama and math into one cohesive piece. Possible Worlds won a Governor General's Literary Award for Drama in 1992 alongside Short History of Night.

Possible Worlds starts out with Berkley and Williams, both detectives, at a crime scene where a man, identified as George Barber, has been murdered and the top of his head cut off and his brain stolen. He is interviewing a scientist, who we learn at the end of the play is named Pensfield. Pensfield is a neuroscientist, and specializes on research of the nervous system. He has many brains in jars hooked up to life support and lights in his lab. In this scene Pensfield has a short speech that is a main focal point of the play. A rat can only imagine so much. It is limited by the structure of its brain. Creatures like us that can anticipate possible futures and make contingency plans have an evolutionary advantage.

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