Have you ever felt your heart pounding when listening to music and not know why? Or have you ever been in a situation where you have to make a hard decision but your heart tells you one thing and your brain tell you another? Well, sometimes emotions can cloud your judgment and get in the way of important decisions. “ An emotion is An is usually caused by a person consciously or unconsciousness evaluating an event as relevant to a concern ( a goal) that is important” ( Oaltey & Jenkins , 1196 Chapter 4).
Emotions are something we sometimes cannot control because you may see something that makes you sad or happy but you may not know why. "Emotions and emotional feelings ( affect) may be substantially determining the exertion and absorption of ideas and beliefs" ( Tait). I am interested in beliefs about emotions in theatre and my preferences to use the terms ‘ emotions ‘ and ‘ emotional feelings ‘ to take advantage of the braid range of innovating work on emotions that are especially displayed in the play possible worlds.
( Photo of interactive emotions may by Kelther)
We have seven universal emotions that are portrayed around all different cultures around the world. These emotions are:
1. Anger
2. Fear
3. Disgust
4. Happiness
5. Sadness
6. Surprise
7. Contempt
Possible worlds is a play that can be classified as a sci-fi tragic drama. "Possible worlds is a post-modern expressionist piece in that neither the relationship with the views or the subject is stable" ( Nestruck, 2015) . "The scenes are disjointed and it disrupts things in which is what is being created those unstable relationships with the views which can also put the play under the style of modernism" (Kaplain, 2015). Possible worlds was written the play by Canadian playwright John Mighton. John Mighton is a mathematician, author, playwright, and the founder of JUMP Math, a successful school program designed to tutor children who are having difficulties in math. Mighton’s play Possible Worlds was made into a full-length feature film directed by renowned director/playwright Robert Lepage. He is currently adapting Brian Greene’s book The Elegant Universe for the Lincoln Centre with Robert Lepage.
The Canadian playwright begins the play with detectives Berkley and Williams at a crime scene where a man, George Barber has been killed and the top of his head has been cut off and his brain is gone. Berkley is interviewing a neuroscientist named Pensfield as he has so many brains in jars that are hocked up to life support on lights in his lab. Thinking back to the " seven universal emotions" what emotion do you think Berkley was feeling when he sees the part of the head had been cut off and his brain is gone? Well, my guess is that Berkley was feeling a bit of disgust as he was not expecting the brain to be stolen as this is an unusual crime for him. As the play continues we are introduced to George and Joyce and how they met at a bar. This time Barber is luckier because Joyce does not flat out turn him down instead she invites George to call her. Joyce is doing research on how to improve intelligence and her specialization is in rat cortexes. Williams and Berkley are in their office with a rat brain from Pensfield's lab. Williams tells Berkley about a course his wife wants him to take to increase intelligence and imagination.
George is back with Joyce, this time a stockbroker. He mismatches Joyce the stockbroker with Joyce the scientist about where they were born. Which is never good to mix up girls when you're in a relationship. That shows you were not listening to her to when she was talking. George also tells Joyce about a dream with the slab and block men. In this dream, there is the Guide who is Pensfield. George and Joyce, now the scientist, are at her apartment filled with the same kind of stones that were in George's dream. George convinces the workaholic Joyce to take time off from work and go to the beach with him. George is so caring that he rather have Joyce take time off work to spend time with her but most men would want their partner to be working so they can make money for nice things. George's emotions that are being displayed here are happiness for his love for Joyce and he is using that emotion as a survival use because if you work to much then you will never get enjoy things in life and George is helping Joyce see that by wanting her to come to the beach with him.
George meets Joyce the scientist at the beach. George tries to tell her that they were once married and lived together and it freaks her out. Mighton, does a great job here showing how emotions can cloud your judgment as Joyce insists that he has her mixed up with someone else and tries to run from George. George is again with Joyce on the beach. They see a blinking light in the ocean that goes out shortly afterward before they can figure out what it was. The light is reminiscent of the light that came on with brain activity, suggesting the real Joyce agreed to terminate George consciousness.
The Netflix original series show 13 Reasons Why does a wonderful job with portraying characters who act on emotion to justify their life experiences as no one in and authoritative figure will help them. The show "13 Reasons Why" Clay Jenson is a character like George from possible worlds who make decisions based on his emotions. Warning spoiler alert ahead!!!!!! In season two Clay ends up posting the 13 tapes online so that people can hear Hannah Bakers real story. He posts them online after a day on the court as he was put on trial that day as he was not able to stick up for Hannah because the jury twisted their ways to make Hannah look like a bad person.
"Possible worlds is also specifically postmodern in that the setting varies and is somewhat unpredictable, the world is artificial and the meaning of the play comes with knowing the context" . Possible Worlds is a love story over multiple timelines that is just as adventures in being and connect as a structure.
The powerful emotions that are displayed between the characters George and Joyce during the scene where George asks Joyce to take time off work because she works so much show how much he cares for her. He wants to spend time with her and his emotions are showing that he cares about her more than money. The emotions that were going through my head while reading the play were Anger and happiness because I would get mad at one character but then be happy for another character.
Come to see scenes from this fabulous play done by the Speech Communications class on June 13th at 8pm in the Hatch Studio Theatre in the Jackman Dramatic arts building!
References
"John Mighton - Playwrights Canada Press". Playwrightscanada.Com, 2016, https://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/john-mighton.html. Accessed 9 June 2018.
Kaplan, Jon, and Jon Kaplan. ">>> Review: Possible Worlds". NOW Magazine, 2015, https://nowtoronto.com/stage/theatre/review-possible-worlds/. Accessed 7 June 2018.
Mighton, John. Possible Worlds. Playwrights Canada Press, 1997.
Nestruck, Kelly. "Possible Worlds: A Soggy Mismatch Of Sci-Fi And Fantasy". The Globe And Mail, 2015, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/theatre-reviews/possible-worlds-a-soggy-mismatch-of-sci-fi-and-fantasy/article25592971/. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Reasoning Emotions in Theatre. Contributors: Tait, Peta - Author. Journal title: Australasian Drama Studies. Issue: 49 Publication date: October 2006. Page number: 6+. © La Trobe University at Bundorra.
"The Seven Universal Emotions We Wear On Our Face". Cbc.Ca, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/the-seven-universal-emotions-we-wear-on-our-face. Accessed 8 June 2018.
Extra's
In case there are any math lovers reading my blog here is a link to John Mighton’s Ted talk on the learning of math
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/possible-worlds/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7odlad7TOc
http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/possible-worlds
https://nowtoronto.com/stage/theatre/review-possible-worlds/