Abstract
The world in which Joey exists resists simple definition; this chapter begins with a consideration of world creation, depictions of milieu, and concepts of possible-worlds theory. From this, we move to consider the audience’s role in interpreting that created world, and the ways in which the audience perceives those world elements, as both theatrical event and projected narrative.
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1. One article suggests that while “between one million and two million British horses had been sent to the front lines in the First World War, … only 65,000 or so had come back” (Lyall C1).
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2. Uatu did interfere from time to time based on his faith in the goodness of humanity (see The Fantastic Four #48, March 1966, when he stepped in to thwart the planet-eating Galactus); the character was killed off in Marvel’s 2014 Original Sin arc, although arguably, by the laws of comic book logic, this is not necessarily permanent.
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3. Arguably, we can trace the origin of this term to German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal, with the phrase “le meilleur des mondes possibles,” or “Die beste aller möglichen Welten,” best known in English as “the best of all possible worlds.” Leibnitz argued that of all the possible worlds that exist concurrently, the one humans inhabit is the best, stated as an argument in the problem of evil.
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4. Hollywood dramatised this concept in Peter Howitt’s 1998 film Sliding Doors where a single event (a missed train) sends the protagonist on two radically different paths, played out in parallel depictions; the Fox television series Sliders (1995–2000) sees characters slip between possible realities through a physical wormhole; and in the 1990 play Possible Worlds (later filmed by Robert LePage in 2000), playwright John Mighton explores the concept of possible-worlds through a character who lives and experiences multiple, countless possible-worlds simultaneously. In each scenario, the smallest decision had far-reaching life consequences.
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5 See Chap. 4 for discussion of the transition of Emilie from puppet to human actor.
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6 A charming piece of serendipity, Rae Smith’s “torn-paper projection screen” was modelled on an actual torn piece of paper that Smith inserted as a placeholder in an early design maquette (as related by Ryan Reid, 2015).
References
Doležel, Lubomír. Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2000.
Millar, Mervyn. The Horse’s Mouth: How Handspring and the National Theatre Made War Horse. London: Oberon Books, 2007. Rev. ed.
Millar, Mervyn. Personal Interview (Jackman and Malone via Skype). 2 July 2015 (2015b).
Morpurgo, Michael. Farm Boy. London: Harper Collins, 1997. Rev. Ed. 2011.
Pomerance, Bernard. The Elephant Man. London: Grove P, 1979.
Reid, Ryan (War Horse Company Member, Toronto 2012–13, Gefährten Germany 2013–14). Personal Interview. 4 December 2015.
Tompkins, Joanne. Theatre's Heterotopias: Performance and the Cultural Politics of Space. London: Palgrave, 2014.
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Malone, T., Jackman, C. (2016). “Making Fit”. In: Adapting War Horse. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59475-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59475-4_3
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