Ann Meara

Ann Meara's play Down the Garden Paths treats the related theme of chaos. This play presents one evening in four different scenarios, each having evolved from miniscule differences in the timing of the main character's actions years earlier. Meara's twist is to evoke the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and assert that each outcome occurs. Though usually applied to elementary particles, Meara moves many-worlds into the realm of her charcaters. Every choice, every action spawns alternate universes, one for each outcome. The collection of all universes thus is an infinitely branched fractal. We are traveling one path through the branches, but at each choice, we split into two. And so it goes, for every choice, conscious or unconscious.