The story of possibilities and imagination, of love and morals, Possible Worlds, put on by the UFV theatre reveals the intricacies of parallel worlds in a sci-fi, murder mystery production. The play is about the mind, and it begins with George Barber who is found in the first scene, dead, and missing his brain.
Possible Worlds, directed by Noel Funk, is UFV’s first production of the 2016 / 17 season. This is Noel’s first time directing a full-length play, but he has experience as a director in UFV’s Director Showcase. Having about a month of rehearsal time, Noel, the cast, and the crew have spent long hours working eagerly on their performance to bring Noel’s vision to the stage.
The play itself was written by Canadian mathematical philosopher John Mighton, who has written several plays as well as taught and lectured on mathematics at the University of Toronto and McMasters University. Within his play are a considerable amount of philosophical ponderings related to his work in mathematical fields. The play dramatically incorporates imaginable possibilities into the world of the real.
“I see it as a progression toward both realization and insanity,” Funk said. “Particularly for George, but also for the detectives, because that’s an entirely different world. It’s a progression through a loss of hope and then to discovery.”
In Possible Worlds, two detectives attempt to find a serial killer who steals brains while George and his lover Joyce play out their multiple possible realities throughout the scenes. The show is nonlinear, with scenes disrupted by one another and each taking on a life of its own as they progress through the show. Additionally, there are clever surprises embedded throughout the play. Choreographed into the characters are subtle oddities that suggest something might be not quite right.
“I’m a huge fan of misdirection,” said Funk. “I tried to bring my appreciation of misdirection into this performance as well, just to keep people on their toes.”
The costumes were designed by Riley Ellis, who is also designing the set for Seven Stories and assistant directing Bakkhai later in the season. To connect the parallel worlds and scenes together, details were added to each costume to emphasize the themes.
“George and Joyce are wearing grey jackets, and I’ve decided to tie their worlds together with blood, so they’ve got red on them as well, as do the detectives,” Funk said. “My biggest thing for costumes and hair and makeup was clean and crisp, and I think they achieved that pretty well,” he added.
The set, which was designed by Matt Piton, showcases different worlds, each created in part through unique lighting. The world of the detectives is illuminated by a darker, chocolaty glow while George and his lover exist in a purple hue. The overall styling of the set is of the film noir world, mostly old-fashioned. It’s tied together with two large white drapes and a minimalist construction. The show will also use floor projection which is a new feature to the UFV theatre.
Stage manager Maria Buganska has intently kept her cast focused and, unlike the characters, all in the same world. She mentioned that her role has largely been herding casts, which is apparently very similar to herding cats, both phonetically and semantically.
Even though there are multiple versions of George and Joyce, they exist together no matter what. The play asks a lot of questions, and so will the audience. It touches on themes of love and emotions and the morality of exploring the brain.
“So that’s why it’s called Possible Worlds,” Buganska said. “We go into all these different realities of George because he’s many people in many worlds at the same time.”
Although the cast and crew have been lacking for student involvement, they seem to have again poured themselves into their work and pulled together another intriguing UFV production.
“I have spent too many fucking hours in this theatre for you not to come see it. So come see the show, because it’s wonderfully mind-bending and will probably keep you up until 3 a.m. and you’ll get funny dreams,” Maria added. “It’ll be great.”
Possible Worlds runs from October 20 – 30 at the UFV Chilliwack north campus theatre.
