Mighton being a mathematician, author, and playwright creator, has allowed him to win the Award for Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for the third time! His knowledge and developed experience helped him achieve such recognition, allowing him to continually be recognized as an individual pursuing continual success in the duration of his diverse career.
Photo Credit: https://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/john-mighton.html
Mighton’s completion of a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Toronto gave him a wide range of knowledge that was used to produce successful plays, which are studied all over the globe. One of his most successful play is named Possible Worlds, which according to BBC is a “poetic study of the nature of human existence, wrapped up in a murder mystery”. As other plays written by Mighton, Possible worlds was performed both across Canada and Europe.
Unlike all the other plays written by Mighton, Possible worlds was chosen to be produced as a full-length featured film. The film was produced in the year of 2000, directed by Robert Lepage. Lepage is a director, actor, designer, dramatist and playwright creator. His professional accomplishments have allowed him to direct successful stage performances all around the world. His developed company in 1994, Ex Machina, allowed him to explore different methods of theatrical production. During this time, he entered Cinema, exploring it in both French and English, since he is bilingual.
Lepage was influenced to create a film from Mighton’s playwright due to it being chosen to “participate in the Carrefour Festival in Montreal”. Possible worlds is different than the usual works of film Lepage works on, allowing him to tackle the text with freedom, bringing different visual aspects and cinematic resources. Through Lepage’s film production of the playwright, Mighton can now deliver the text in a manner that helps the audience easily analyze not only the context of the play, but even any themes, or concepts delivered and targeted.
To translate the narrative to a film, Lepage had to search for various visual images and identify the location needed for proper execution of the playwright. While on the other hand, Mighton administered the script for the conversation between characters on set.
Mighton exposes many interests in themes throughout the play, all relating to neuroscience. Some include topics with advancements in science and the matter of morality behind it. Another major theme that was recognized and mainly adapted into the film is the question of identity and trying to identify the difference between realities and fantasies. His combination of art and science in his playwright further allows these themes to be creatively expressed into the production of the film.
Photo Credit: https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-consciousness-8009/
From the start, the film does a satisfactory job in displaying the selected themes in this sci-fi mystery. The theme of identity search is exhibited by Lepage’s use of water scenes throughout the film, mainly during the transitions of scenes, with actors looking though a glass of water or a window splashed with rain. The actors also do a marvelous job performing characters in the play. Tom McCamus plays the main character, George while Joyce is played by Tilda Swinton.
Photo Credit: https://books.google.ca/books id=DYvLpIoLBf4C&pg=PA119&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
In the play, George is shown to have difficulty in switching between his imagination and existence, while looking to continually be in a relationship with Joyce. This is shown in Lepage’s film in various scenes, where George and Joyce have their first encounter. One scene shows Joyce glancing from afar in a frigid way, while another scene is held at a bar, with Joyce approaching George and starting the conversation. The difference in Swinton’s portrayal of Joyce is theatrical, as she moves between realities, whereas George is shown to remain the same, “ maintaining an unnerving poker face, and prone to uttering ambiguous statements in a slow, almost monotone voice” . This proves that by just 2 scenes, Lepage successfully allows the audience to better grasp the original interpretations of the characters in Mighton’s play.
Mighton’s use of numerous narratives allowed Lepage to provide improved context for George and Joyce’s relationship, enabling him to use a variety of visual figures to aid the audience with better analysis of the many adventures taken by George. Furthermore, by switching between scenes of many narratives, it allows the audience to better grasp the idea of consciousness, specifically through observing the different scenes of George switching between realities.
Tom McCamus and Tilda Swinton in Possible Worlds
Photo Credit: http://blacksheepreviews.com/robert-lepage-possible-worlds/
In conclusion, the teamwork of both Mighton and Lepage has enabled all the themes and topics in the playwright of Possible Worlds to be effectively portrayed on screen. Furthermore, adapting the play into a successful film production allowed them to receive many rewards and recognition, impacting the future careers of both Mighton and Lepage.
Ps: Here is a little scene from the film if you are interested!
References:
- http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-lepage-emc/
- https://books.google.ca/books?id=DYvLpIoLBf4C&pg=PA119&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
- https://finearts.uvic.ca/writing/websites/writ412-site/current_issue/essays/possibleworlds_yoneda.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=39&v=r3jk6WiP6Y4
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/07/11/possible_worlds_2001_review.shtml
- https://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/john-mighton.html