在戲里，看見自己
——第四屆烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)印象

文張婷 Zhang Ting 譯曹宇光 Cao Yuguang

在戲里，看見自己
——第四屆烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)印象

文張婷 Zhang Ting 譯曹宇光 Cao Yuguang

Self-identi fi cation in Dramas——Impression of the 4thWuzhen Theatre Festival

戲哪有人生精彩？預(yù)先設(shè)定的狂歡遭遇突如其來的死亡，比戲更有戲劇性。第四屆烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)甫一開始，正輕松談起“我希望辦到第四屆的烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)更有厚度，除了有優(yōu)美和狂喜，還要有批判和思考”的烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)藝術(shù)總監(jiān)孟京輝，突然得知意大利劇作家達里奧·福在米蘭去世的消息，驚訝得久久無法恢復(fù)平靜。

兼顧狂喜與沉思，正是達里奧·福作品的最動人處。1997年，他獲頒諾貝爾文學(xué)獎，評獎委員會評價他——擅長以中世紀弄臣的方法來痛斥當權(quán)者，進而維護受壓迫者的尊嚴，他的作品“同時具有逗人發(fā)笑，引人入勝并為讀者提供多種視角的力量”。《他有兩把左輪手槍和黑白相間的眼睛》是孟京輝帶來此次戲劇節(jié)的全新作品，原作者正是達里奧·福，演員們不僅負責(zé)演出的部分，還兼任編舞、譜曲、填詞、現(xiàn)場演唱和演奏，“用帶勁的演出表示我們的懷念?！泵暇┹x說。

“眼睛不夠用”

“達里奧·福的劇本搭配載歌載舞的方式，這是一種新鮮的呈現(xiàn)?！眱?nèi)行看門道，與戲劇節(jié)同期舉辦的國際戲劇評論家協(xié)會論壇上，德國戲劇理論家、法蘭克福大學(xué)戲劇系教授漢斯·蒂斯·雷曼說：“我發(fā)現(xiàn)很多國家的年輕觀眾都喜歡這樣的戲，這部作品在德國也不會缺觀眾。”

“年輕”是烏鎮(zhèn)戲劇節(jié)的一大特色，無論觀眾還是創(chuàng)造者——作為開幕戲的《群鬼2.0》，是中國青年戲劇導(dǎo)演王翀用多媒體方式對易卜生經(jīng)典作品進行的全新解讀：舞臺上以四塊屏幕展現(xiàn)人物狀態(tài)之分裂的方法，在歐洲的舞臺上亦非鮮見，甚至儼然成風(fēng)；但這樣做是必要的嗎？此舉是對“四屏?xí)r代”年輕觀眾的討好嗎？王翀?zhí)寡?，他之所以用演員與攝像機進行互動，因為網(wǎng)絡(luò)的影響不由分說，是多焦點的，每個人都以自我為中心，甚至是“自拍式”的。

《群鬼2.0》的海報上有一句宣傳語：“在一群鬼面前，兩只眼睛不再夠用”，此語絕非虛——坐在臺下的觀眾，要兼顧舞臺和四塊屏幕，顯然不那么簡單；要從舞臺所傳遞的海量信息中遴選出自己所需，更非易事。

“我也不知道”

戲劇節(jié)另一部備受矚目的280分鐘“巨作”——《賭徒》，改編自俄羅斯文學(xué)巨匠陀思妥耶夫斯基的同名小說。陀氏一生命途多舛，被流放到西伯利亞勞改營多年后，返家時發(fā)現(xiàn)妻子將不久于人世，之后他的兄弟與摯友也相繼英年早逝。心力交瘁之下，他遠走德國躲避債主，轉(zhuǎn)眼間又輸?shù)羯砩献詈蟮腻X和他所有的著作版權(quán)。因為急需拿到出版商的預(yù)付款，他竟在26天內(nèi)完成了《賭徒》，簡直就是一部關(guān)乎賭癮的宣言。

從1999年起便開始將陀氏一系列小說搬上舞臺的柏林人民劇院藝術(shù)總監(jiān)弗蘭克·卡斯托夫，此番也運用了多媒體視覺影像，他透過旋轉(zhuǎn)的舞臺將空間區(qū)隔成電影院、游樂場、旅館房間、公司住所和賭場五個空間。其中的賭場被其他四個空間團團包住，所有在賭場發(fā)生的事情，都以攝影機現(xiàn)場轉(zhuǎn)播到電影院空間，仿如一場實景“輪盤賭”。對于《賭徒》，他的理解是：“在徹底的失控、邪惡、放縱和躁動下，一切都有可能，或者說，一切都沒有意義?！?/p>

1992年，柏林墻倒塌不久，生于東柏林的卡斯托夫，合并后的柏林市政府邀請他出任人民劇院藝術(shù)總監(jiān)?？ㄋ雇蟹虻目陬^禪是帶有柏林口音的——“我也不知道”。1992年新的演出季開幕致辭時，他說：“我也不知道這兒該如何發(fā)展。在東德，我們學(xué)會了何為即興。我希望大家不要在乎媒體，不要在乎評論家和其他劇院，幸災(zāi)樂禍的敵人到處都是，重要的是在這里工作的樂趣。”帶著這種“不知道”精神，卡斯托夫和演員們的工作方法堪稱“殘酷”——絕對自由，用絕對自由來挑戰(zhàn)演員，挑戰(zhàn)肢體和精神上的懶惰，激發(fā)他們的創(chuàng)造力，他曾說：“藝術(shù)需要瘋狂，在今日社會中，只有對運動員還能做出過分的要求，藝術(shù)卻不行了，人們流于自我滿足?！倍朔顿€徒》超過4小時的“滿場飛”，還有大段大段讓“字幕君”吐苦水“字幕限制不了演員們”的即興表演，也著實讓人感慨——他們何止是演員，分明就是演員加上奧運會運動員。

《賭徒》劇照 Stage Photo of the play Der Spieler

《媽媽的詩》劇照 Stage Photo of the play Mother Earth

對于卡斯托夫的解讀，不妨將之視為他也在挑戰(zhàn)觀眾的懶惰——戲劇不光是用來享受的，作品對于當下國際政治的影射，諸如“這原本屬神跡之地的歐洲已經(jīng)破碎，亞洲可能才是我們的出路”的臺詞，還有劇中人——分別來自英國、法國、德國和俄羅斯的不同身份，都逼迫我們思考。漢斯·蒂斯·雷曼則說：卡斯托夫身上那種“失望的東德人”特質(zhì)，讓他不可避免地將自己的經(jīng)歷帶入了戲劇創(chuàng)作之中?！翱纯ㄋ雇蟹虻膽蚴且环N享受嗎？或者說，看戲應(yīng)該是一種享受嗎？這本身就是值得思考的問題。不得不承認的是，對于卡斯托夫的作品，我也有大半都看不懂。他對于陀思妥耶夫斯基的文本有細致入微的分析與處理，不一定是進劇場的人事先都能有所準備的。但是我認為觀眾和舞臺產(chǎn)生個人化的連接更重要，不要害怕你不懂——先感受、再理解，試著與劇中人‘同呼吸’就好了?！?/p>

“同呼吸就好了”

與劇中人“同呼吸”，甚至無需過多語言，來自俄羅斯的《媽媽的詩》和法國的《那些人》無疑都做到了這一點。前者的中英文標題看似迥異——中文是《媽媽的詩》；英文mother earth直譯則是“大地之母”；兩者卻都強調(diào)了“母親”之于俄羅斯民族的重要意義。作品改編自欽吉斯·艾特馬托夫同名小說，故事從夏日清晨，身著白衣的姑娘一邊在田間勞作，一邊與一身黑衣的“大地母親”對話開始；秋收時，她愛上了一個年輕的工人，兩人暢想著共度一生的未來；不久后，這對年輕夫婦成了三個孩子的父母，他們一同在田野耕作、闔家歡樂；大兒子遇到了一位好姑娘，雙雙墜入愛河、喜結(jié)連理。隨后戰(zhàn)爭的消息傳來，大兒子入伍，與愛人分別；父親、二兒子、小兒子也都相繼入伍，冬天，一切被冰雪覆蓋，母親收到了丈夫和兒子們的死訊；她到田野質(zhì)問“大地母親”，為什么會有戰(zhàn)爭、死亡與恐懼，“大地母親”告訴她：她的兒媳正孕育著一個新生命；而兒媳又在生產(chǎn)時去世，結(jié)尾，母親獨自帶著這個新生的嬰兒生活下去……

在演出“大地母親”一角的大提琴家奧爾加·德明娜的伴奏之下，一家人在田間旋轉(zhuǎn)、舞動，別具俄羅斯風(fēng)格的跳躍騰挪帶來的歡悅；婚禮狂歡時舞臺上方突然灑下數(shù)百顆子彈的恐怖；用黑布分別兜住大兒子和兒媳，往不同的方向拉扯的“生離死別”；兒媳懷胎十月，僅僅用她站在長桌上，邊走邊一個個撿起石塊裝進衣裙進行演繹。作品以行云流水的肢體動作和去繁就簡的象征表達，完全超越語言，讓人體味到詩意不只在遠方；而劇中僅有的一句臺詞——二兒子入伍前，在火車站邊揮舞著帽子邊不斷喊出的“MаMа ”，能打動的，想必不僅是“戰(zhàn)斗民族”。

在沒有布景的舞臺上，男人和女人推著一輛車而來，所有的家當和一兒一女都在這輛車里。而后他們一件件將東西取出，在空地上“建”起一個最簡陋的家。兩位演員熟練操作著木偶，演繹出劇中人的一雙兒女，他們調(diào)皮、好奇、充滿幻想地學(xué)會走路、開始成長，饑餓、外來人的威脅讓他們煩惱，卻也讓一家人更加親密?！扒形鹈月?，切勿分離。即便再貧窮困苦，只要和家人在一起，都是幸福。”《那些人》的導(dǎo)演弗朗索瓦斯·格里埃爾如此闡釋這一部短小的作品。她和法布里斯·羅密爾、克勞蒂亞·烏魯?shù)賮唭晌谎輪T不僅一起創(chuàng)作故事，一起動手制作了要用的所有道具，甚至還在一起“發(fā)明”了一種奇特的語言——作品里，人物的對話除幾句是法語之外，其他都是用這種語言完成的，配合著母親哼唱的時而輕快、時而沉重、時而又有魔幻味道的旋律，給人留下很深的印象。演出之后，筆者見到來自智利的克勞蒂亞·烏魯?shù)賮?，她說自己所哼唱的旋律有的來自法國香頌、有的來自盎格魯民謠，哄孩子們睡覺時那首特別的歌則是智利傳統(tǒng)的搖籃曲。

對于今年戲劇節(jié)的主題“眺”，孟京輝還想多說兩句：“如果你真想眺望的話，那一定得準備好——得有能力跳起來，不會崴腳、不會摔著，還要有眺望的眼光和視野，更要有一顆美好的心?！睆娜粘５臒┤咧校摰綉蚶?；在戲里，看見自己，或許能重遇過往歡欣，或許能自省當下迷惘，或許能遠眺前路光亮。Is it possible that a drama turns out to be more wonderful than life? The predestined carnival colliding with unexpected death might be far more dramatic than any theatre play. When talking about the 4thWuzhen Theatre Festival (WTF) at the very beginning, Meng Jinghui, art supervisor of WTF who once said“besides elegance and ecstasy, this session of WTF is expected to be more profound in criticism and thinking”, was too astonished to regain peace in mind at the news that Italian playwright Dario Fo passed away at Milan.

The perfect combination of ecstasy and reflection is the most touching part of Dario Fo’s works. In 1997 he was awarded with Nobel Prize in Literature. The Jury praised him as a writer "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden" and his works“providing power of humor, enlightenment and multi-perspective observation for readers”. The latest production that Meng Jinghui has dedicated to this session of WTF was the play He Had Two Pistols with White and Black Eyes, whose author was just Dario Fo. Besides acting, those actors took up choreography, lyrics and music composition, live singing and recital. As Meng expressed,“we would like to present an unforgettable performance to pay our homage to this great master”.

Beyond Eyes Vision

“This pair of Dario Fo’s script as well as song and dance is a brand new presentation.” As a senior professional in theatre, Hans-Thies Lehmann, professor of Theatre Studies at Goethe- Universit?t, Frankfurt am Main, and world renowned theorist from Germany, asserted, “As far as I can see, young audiences from many countries will like such theatre productions and it is no exception at all in Germany”.

Either for audiences or for creators, “young age” has become a main character in WTF. As the opening play, Ghosts 2.0 was a novel re-interpretation of Henrik Ibsen’s classical masterpiece through multi-media by Chinese young theatre director Wang Chong. In this production, four screens were set up on stage to demonstrate the separate situations of the figures. Though it is no longer a rare occasion and has even become a fashion in European arena, we couldn’t help wondering if it was necessary and if it aimed to cater for those young audiences in favor of “four-screen separation”. As Wang Chong admitted, the interaction betweenactors and cameras is intended to reflect the uncontrolled multiintersection effect of Internet as well as the egoist or “selfied”recognition of everyone.

“In face of group ghosts, a pair of eyes can’t see everything”. Such a quote from the poster of Ghosts 2.0 proved to be unexaggerated at all. Obviously, it was not easy to capture every scene over the stage and on those four screens at the same time or to select useful information out of massive amount from this drama.

I’ve No Idea Either

Another outstanding production in WTF was an 280-minutelong drama Der Spieler, adapted from the novel The Gambler by Russian literature master in literature Dostoyevsky. After years of exile in a labor camp in Siberia, he returned home to find his wife dying. Soon after that, both his brother and his best friend fell to early deaths. Devastated and uprooted, he traveled to Germany in an attempt to escape his creditors. In no time, he had gambled away the last of his money as well as the copyrights to all of his books. In urgent need of a cash advance from publisher, he jotted down The Gambler in only 26 days, which was just a literary manifesto of gambling addiction. Frank Castorf, artistic director of the Volksbuhne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, began to take up series of Dostoyevsky’s versions on stage in 1999. This time, by means of multi-media image in vision, he divided the stage around a spinning platform into five parts, that is, cinema, playground, hotel room, company office and casino. The casino was surrounded by other four parts, and all that happened within the casino was live broadcast in the cinema like a living roulette. As to the play, the director uttered his understanding, “in a complete loss of control, evil, indulge and agitation, everything is possible, or in other words, meaningless”.

In the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Castorf, born in East Berlin, was invited by Berlin Municipality in 1992 to act as artistic director of the Volksbuhne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz. In his Berlin accent, this director used to say “I’ve no idea either”in German. In the opening speech for repertory season of 1992, he said, “I’ve no idea what to be developed here. During our days in German Democratic Republic (GDR), we learned about improvisation. I hope that everyone never cares about media, critics or other theatre because we can always find the opponents who delight in others’ trouble. The only thing that matters is the joy of work here”. With such an open mind in artistic creation, thedirector and his peers adopted a cruel way of “Absolute Liberty”so as to fight against actors’ inertia in both physical and spiritual conditions and to stimulate their creativity. As the director said, “art calls for insanity, and in the current society, extreme requirement only applies to athletes because most artists are drunken in self-content”. In the play Der Spieler, all the actors and actresses presented over 4 hours’ acting with quantities of lines. However, the subtitle never confined their improvised acting and all the audiences regarded them as one of the best actors and athletes in Olympic spirits.

Such presentation can be understood as the director’s challenge-“Drama is far beyond mere enjoyment” against audiences’ inertia as well. Some indications of the current international politics such as the line “Europe, land of God’s miracle, is broken, while Asia might be our way out” or the varied national identities from UK, France, Germany and Russia made us think over and again. In the opinion of Hans-Thies Lehmann, the director’s feature of “a disappointed person from GDR” had inevitably brought his own personal experience into theatre creation. “Is watching Castorf’s drama a kind of enjoyment? Or is watching drama enjoyment? It’s a good question worth thinking about. I have to admit that almost half of Castorf’s drama is beyond my comprehension because his detailed analysis and arrangement in Dostoyevsky’s script is often beyond audiences’ preparedness. Nevertheless, it is more important for audiences to make personal connections with the drama. Never be afraid that you may fail to understand the plot, but feel about it and try to understand while sharing the same air with those characters”.

“Share the Same Air”

Language seems to be unnecessary so long as audiences can share the same air with the characters in a drama. Undoubtedly, the two dramas Mother Earth from Russia and Those People from France were just the cases. Russian drama Mother Earth was adapted from Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel. Though Chinese version of the title (literally Mother’s Poem) is a bit different, the significance of “Mother” to Russian people is stressed as well. The story started on an early morning in summer when a young girl in white had a conversation with “Mother Earth” while working in the field. During harvest time, she fell in love with a young worker and this couple dreamt of their future happiness. Soon they became parents of three sons—the Senior, the Middle and the Junior. They worked in the field together and enjoyed family happiness. The Senior met a nice girl and they soon got married. Afterwards, the terrible news came that a war broke out. The Senior joined the army, and soon the Middle, the Junior and the Father followed. When winter froze the field with snow, the deaths of the Father and three sons came to the Mother who then? asked “Mother Earth” why such bad things as war, death and fear were still allowed. Mother Earth replied that the Daughter-in-Law was expecting a baby. However, the Daughter-in-Law died after giving birth to a baby. In the end, the Mother struggled alone with this new life.

In the accompaniment by cellist Olga Demina as “Mother Earth”, the whole family swirled in dance and their distinct movement in Russian style indicated their joy, the sudden falling of hundreds of bullets during the wedding carnival brought about terror and the Senior and the Daughter-in-Law were wrapped by dark cloth and forced apart by death. The Daughter-in-Law’s simple act of picking stones one after another into the skirt while walking along a long table implied the boring process of pregnancy. Such fluent motion and gesture as well as explicit expression of symbolism, totally without language, brought audiences into a poetic romance. The Middle Son’s cry of “mama” before he got on the military train, as the only line in the whole play, aroused a universal touching sense among the audiences’ hearts regardless of nationality.

On a stage without scenery, a man and a woman came with a cart within which they had all their belongings and children. Then they took everything out of the cart one by one and set up a most simple house in the open air. The actor and the actress skillfully worked the puppets as their son and daughter who were curious, naughty and full of imagination. They learnt to walk and began to grow up. The threats from hunger and stranger made them annoyed and yet more close to each other as a complete family.“Never get lost or separated. Even if one leads a poor and hard life, the family reunion is always happiness.” Fran?oise Glière, the director of the drama Those People, explained about this short play. Together with two actors Fabrice Rumier and Claudia Urrutia, she managed the plot and all the props, and even “invented” a unique language. Except for a few lines of conversation in French, the rest of the expression was realized in this special language. Along with the Mother’s melody that sounded sometimes brisk, sometimes somber and sometimes magical, this particular expression impressed most audiences. As the actress Claudia Urrutia who came from Chile introduced during the interview after the show, the melody was inspired from French Chanson and Anglo Ballad. The particular song she hymned to get children into sleep was just the traditional cradle song of Chile.

As to the theme word “Gaze Beyond”, Meng Jinghui had more to say, “if you really want to gaze beyond, you must be wellprepared so as not to get twisted or have a fall. Moreover, you must have long vision and beautiful mind”. Indeed, when one jumps out of daily chores into drama, he or she can achieve selfidentification. Maybe we can recollect the joy in the past, see through the current mist, and find a promising future.