Metafiction, Henry V, and
Shakespearean Hypermedia
by Ronald Fedoruk
Chorus.
1790 Now entertaine coniecture of a time,
e spend our lives collecting information and storing it in some logical manner. Individual patterns or bits of information that catalogue our experience are called schemas. The sum of our schemas then forms a sort of template that makes it easier to catagorize new information. We are always comparing new images to our previous experience. This process of matching the received information to an existing knowledge base is variously described as projection, classification, or symbolization, and is an inescapable element of perception.
Schemas enable us to perceive objects and occurrence around us and to make efficient sense of them by consulting our readymade store of similar occurrences and understandings... (Douglas and Hargadon)
We seem to be quite happy with the artist supplying only a minimal framework, and Shakespeare does this all the time. We assimilate Shakespeare's various images, comparing each one to our previous experience. This concept has a huge implication for the designer seeking to establish the perfect Scenographic space. It is only after some understanding has been achieved, that a series of images can become a useful Scenographic environment. Shakespeare and Chorus have skillfully negotiated a process of understanding that makes the audience become an active player in the Scenographic game.
Once we have the audience participating this way, a complete and perfectly accurate picture is not always necessary. The audience will fill in the blanks to its own satisfaction. Chorus' apologetic tone then, rings a little hollow, for Shakespeare knows perfectly well that he does not need to recreate an entire battle. He chooses to evoke a response rather than recreate a real event. It is enough to offer a symbol of battle, a key which will allow the audience to unlock its own representation. A battlefield can been reduced to fit inside the limited space of the theatre; armies can be reduced to a single swordfight. The simulated conflict is no more than a stimulation to the audience's imagination.
This simulated stimulation can have a powerful emotional reality. Each of us responds differently to a simulus (excellent misprint), and we delight in the multitude of images that can be conjured in a few lines. Shakespeare carefully selects the simple, almost mundane images which emphasize the individual nature of a soldier's role in battle. Familiar personal details which we can easily understand make the battle immediate and accessible in our imagination. Responding to his text (and with Chorus' encouragement) we believe that we experience the real battle. Realism in this case has more to do with belief than with authenticity.
This is, of course, not limited to Shakespeare nor to theatre.
"Comic book art deals with recognizable reproductions of human conduct. Its drawings are a mirror reflection and depend on the reader's stored memory of experience to visualize an idea or process quickly....Where dialogue is not furnished, it requires that the storyteller depend on the reader's experience to supply the speech that amplifies the intercourse between the actors." (Eisner, pp.17,57)
"David Bordwell discusses narrative film with terms borrowed from the Russian Formalists... The fabula, according to Bordwell, is a pattern which perceivers of narratives create through assumptions and inferences. It is the developing result of picking up narrative cues, applying schemata, framing and testing hypotheses." (Balcom 1996)
In discussing the complexity of Chorus' role in the Prologue, I suggested that the audience was engaged in actively creating a virtual world within the theatre. This is what the audience is expected to do at nearly every performance event. It may in fact be that all scenic space is by necessity, virtual space. The dramatic action is usually fiction and environment on the stage is certainly not reality. Yet the Playwright, the Actors and the Scenographer ask the audience to imagine events as if they are happening in a real place. Whatever illusion is attempted onstage, no matter how convincing, it will always be a simulacrum, requiring completion and validation by the audience. In this context the mobility of thought and the dexterity of imagination required to maintain the virtual space become absolutely necessary elements in the creation of theatre.
In Scenographic terms this mobility is referred to as "plasticity". The environment that Chorus establishes in the Henry V is thus a very plasitc environment, but that is not unlike the virtual space required by any narrated text. The problem arises of course when the very plastic situations and very abstract ideas expressed by the narrator have to have a tangible presence on the stage. Imitative or representational staging has a hard time in this regard, given the difficulty moving its usually large physical masses at the speed demanded by Chorus. The solution lies in simplicity of form. So Scenography that is evocative rather than representative of particular environments will be more successful. Much less physical apparatius is needed, so long as the correct images can be evoked.
Plasticity in Scenography was most eloquently explored by the Swiss Designer and Theorist Adolphe Appia. He recognized that plasticity depended on the audience's active creation of belief, and he set about supplying a mise en scene which would be encourage and exploit that involvement. He established a new style which was both simple and provocative. He commented on the need for simplicity in designing for Richard Wagner's operas:
"...one has to find what scenically characterizes the heroic world and distinguishes it from the world of broken harmonies [of simple mortals] The Ring of the Nibelungen can base its staging only very indirectly upon its mythic source. It's signifying power is typical, not symbolic, and it reaches a degree of precision that goes far beyond the mere mythological. For that reason, one should feel free to dress the characters in any manner one chooses, and place them within a scenic environment that makes them relate to us more intimately. The only way to accomplish this is to restrict one-self to the most elementary necessities in terms of set and costume."
- Appia, Loeffler 60
Theatre space constructed in this manner is virtual space, existing not so much on the stage, but in some virtual place designed, in part, by the audience. When audiences are required to actively create belief in the story, all those enjoyment factors that we variously refer to as engagement, immersion, and agency are increased. So it is with the creation of the story enviironment. If the audience has a responsibility in actively creating the space, we will have a corresponding belief in that space, which can then be used as a launching area for our further understanding of other elements the story. Exactily as Chorus intends.
The Humme of eyther Army stilly sounds;
1795 That the fixt Centinels almost receiue
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each Battaile sees the others vmber'd face.
Steed threatens Steed, in high and boastfull Neighs
1800 Piercing the Nights dull Eare: and from the Tents,
The Armourers accomplishing the Knights,
With busie Hammers closing Riuets vp,
Giue dreadfull note of preparation.
The Countrey Cocks doe crow, the Clocks doe towle:
1805 And the third howre of drowsie Morning nam'd,
Prowd of their Numbers, and secure in Soule,
The confident and ouer-lustie French,
Doe the low-rated English play at Dice;
And chide the creeple-tardy-gated Night,
1810 Who like a foule and ougly Witch doth limpe
So tediously away. The poore condemned English,
Like Sacrifices, by their watchfull Fires
Sit patiently, and inly ruminate
The Mornings danger: and their gesture sad,
1815 Inuesting lanke-leane Cheekes, and Warre-worne Coats,
Presented them vnto the gazing Moone
So many horride Ghosts. O now, who will behold
The Royall Captaine of this ruin'd Band
Walking from Watch to Watch, from Tent to Tent;
1820 Let him cry, Prayse and Glory on his head:
Bids them good morrow with a modest Smyle,
And calls them Brothers, Friends, and Countreymen.
Vpon his Royall Face there is no note,
1825 How dread an Army hath enrounded him;
Nor doth he dedicate one iot of Colour
Vnto the wearie and all-watched Night:
But freshly lookes, and ouer-beares Attaint,
With chearefull semblance, and sweet Maiestie:
1830 That euery Wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his Lookes.
A Largesse vniuersall, like the Sunne,
Thawing cold feare, that meane and gentle all
1835 Behold, as may vnworthinesse define.
A little touch of Harry in the Night,
And so our Scene must to the Battaile flye:
object, an individual gives it a new and personal meaning.
This allows him to concretise his inner fantasy play by re-
presenting it with symbolic objects. Thus a stick becomes
a gun, a teddy bear becomes a comforting friend and
collection of blocky sprites becomes a menacing foe.
Projection is used in this way by play therapists, who know
that a child, who may not be able to verbalise or consciously
understand her feelings, will often enact personal issues
through toys, with inner processes, conflicts and goals
mirrored symbolically in the stories and themes of play....
With foure or fiue most vile and ragged foyles,
1840 (Right ill dispos'd, in brawle ridiculous)
The Name of Agincourt: Yet sit and see,
Minding true things, by what their Mock'ries bee.
