ABSTRACT
Theatre, with its text and performance, first, in the text, establishes a range of "possible worlds", and then, second, in any given performance, fixes one "possible world". By contrast, there are many things in the theatre that do exist and do possess thinghood. Theatre lays an interesting claim to Michael Dummett's "anti-realism": given that there are two worlds in theatre – the world of the audience and the world of the play – an argument can be made that the same offstage reality or offstage presence can be understood through both "realism" and Dummett's "anti-realism". One of the major debates within the study of "possible worlds" is the problem posed by identity across possible worlds, also known as "transworld identity". Defining the necessary-offstage presence is still a matter of the sum total of all of the actions, acts, and/or effects caused by/ascribed to the offstage presence.
