←Recommendations of Impossible Theories Of Us

It's hard to imagine a more innovative way to tell a story than the one Mr. Mabey has created. The humanity of the characters is special, with the play's characters speaking in simple, heartfelt ways. You can feel the longings, the sadness, the joys, the questioning...the play just floats. A wonderful read and it's already garnering productions and most likely, some awards. Well done!

The first John Mabey play I ever read was "True Skies," and it blew me away. It was so incredible to discover the rest of that touching and memorable story - and who could have guessed that it would be a science fiction epic about what it means to be human? Truly, reflecting the best of humanity on the stage seems to be Mabey's gift. This play is, at turns, harrowing and hopeful, but always about people, warts and all. The mastery of dialogic rhythm brings it to the next level. Genre theatre at its best!

ITOU is the best kind of sci-fi, where abstract concepts—faith, identity, the afterlife—are made literal and urgent by speculative circumstances (in this case, advanced AI technology which can recreate consciousness from recorded memories).

ITOU reminds me a bit of my favorite episode of Black
Mirror, and a bit of John Mighton’s quantum physics romance, POSSIBLE WORLDS—but this play is uniquely John Mabey. Gina’s transness is an essential element of her character and the play. It’s not her trauma, but her superpower, allowing her to imagine a self that shifts and expands and contains multitudes.

IMPOSSIBLE THEORIES OF US is a tender, timeless journey through love, longing, and loss that incorporates imagined (future) technologies resulting in an exquisite science fiction romance. Mabey’s talent for crafting three-dimensional characters through their choices works in tandem with his fine ear for truthfully layered dialogue to create an utterly human story that’s stunning in its simplicity. Theaters will be lucky to produce this knock-out of a play!

A gorgeously written character-driven sci-fi where the two leads have undeniable chemistry and not a beat is wasted. The final image in this play took my breath away.

I don't often gravitate towards sci-fi, but this play is a stunning exception. This is an achingly human, beautiful work that had me fully engaged the entire time. The relationship between Gina and Keith is tender, honest, and believable in a way that it takes incredible skill to capture. "Impossible Theories of Us" is sheer brilliance start to end; it deserves a full production, and soon.

An intimate epic of the cosmos, “Impossible Theories of Us” has the mystery of a “Black Mirror” episode, the poetic economy of a Caryl Churchill play, and the wonder of Nick Payne’s “Constellations.” This play, in its own unique manner, is a memory play. Not the kind where a character relives memories, but rather about trying to recapture one’s own memories, complicated by the question of whether the objects of our memories have agency. Compelling moral/ethical questions, fused with an emotionally engaging and charming pas de deux, make this play a stunner.

Stunning. As brilliant as the light display that envelops the entire piece. John Mabey gives us two characters who instantly charm us and takes us on a journey through their life together and beyond. Whether through science or a miracle, or the miracle of science, the prospect of immortality raises fascinating questions about AI, humanity, memories, and more. There’s a reason this play is gaining so much recognition. Read it and you’ll understand.

There's a charming Black Mirror aesthetic to IMPOSSIBLE THEORIES OF US by John Mabey, but Mabey goes deeper than that in their IMPOSSIBLE THEORIES. While a Black Mirror episode might leave the reader with a bleak overall feeling of "technology is bad", Mabey explores the ethics of AI as well as love, grief, and trans identity in a meaty, highly stylized full-length piece for two actors with an inventive narrative structure. A miracle? A tragedy? A rom-com? It's all of these things. Sounds impossible, but I have a theory John Mabey has pulled through for us.

A beautiful, beautiful play about loss, memory, grief, identity, relationships, technology, and the very essence of humanity--some weighty stuff! I appreciated how huge existential themes were explored through this charming, intimate, deftly-rendered relationship. I also so appreciated how Gina existed as a trans character and her world and life were so clearly shaped and influenced by various bits of her identity, but we saw her journey in an extremely intersectional manner. How her gender was discussed with Keith as he and Gina contemplated his fate and impending transformation in the "past tense" scenes was nuanced and lovely.