【THE TIMES】Peter and Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre, WC2
原文地址:http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/stage/theatre/article3722621.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_03_25
Peter and Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre, WC2
Libby Purves
Published at 12:01AM, March 26 2013
★★★★★
In 1932, opening a bookshop exhibition, Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Davies. The elderly widow was once Lewis Carroll’s child-friend; the young man one of the boys who inspired J. M. Barrie. Thus Alice met Peter Pan. The playwright John Logan now imagines how they may have compared notes on being muses to odd, solitary men who needed to borrow childhood’s clouds of glory.
Judi Dench is Alice, Ben Whishaw is Peter; their fictional creators are Nicholas Farrell as the awkward Rev Charles Dodgson armoured with whimsy, and Derek Riddell as a possessive Barrie. Their fictional child-selves dart in and out, quoting and bickering, pitilessly adventurous, fearing nothing: Ruby Bentall is a golden-haired forthright Alice, Olly Alexander a leggy, bellicose Peter Pan.
The result is shattering in its intensity. For much of its 90 minutes, Michael Grandage’s latest production had me in a Pool of Tears as bad as Alice’s: the distressful, healing empathy which great theatre produces. It was not even the obvious tragedies that struck to the heart, though the First World War took two of Alice’s sons and Peter’s brother, and his youngest drowned at Oxford. These things are spoken of, but often the trigger for emotion is a throwaway line, a turn of the head, a silent figure at the stage’s edge: Dench glancing down or Whishaw shuddering for a moment at his shadow, the spry cold-hearted fictional child Peter who haunts him.
Peter and Alice is a play about the sadness of growing up into disillusion, and the greater sadness of those who never do. Who die, like lost boys in wartime, or live on stunted and afraid of adulthood.
Logan also shines a light on the risk of placing a burden of brooding, self-identifying love on children, and demanding too much in return. We think about abuse in physical terms, but a subtler danger is the neediness of lonely adults. As Alice says, “I think they were born out of sadness, Alice and Peter” . The young man replies: “Uncle Jim was the loneliest man I ever knew.”
Dench is unmatchable: old Alice stiff and snappish in the bookshop, suddenly shedding years to skip upstage into the cardboard fantasy, young beneath white hair, matronly frock swinging free. If you are growing old, or love the old and recognise their youthfulness, it breaks your heart open. Hard to know whether without Dench Logan’s play will endure: maybe its power is as evanescent as Grandage’s production and its breathtaking toy-theatre staging.
1932年,在一个书店里举行的一次展览中,Alice Liddell Hargreaves遇到了Peter Davis。这位上了年纪的寡妇曾是Lewis Carroll的少年至交,而这位年轻人则是J M Barrie创作彼得潘的灵感来源之一。于是爱丽丝和彼得潘见面了。剧作家John Logan现在则想象起了他们在如何不小心成为举止古怪、离索独居却带走了一片童真无邪的灿烂云彩的作家们的缪斯上这个问题上交换意见的情景。
Judi Dench饰演Alice,Ben Whishaw饰演Peter,而担任他们在文学上的创造者角色的则是Nicholas Farrell,饰演不善交际却巧思敏捷的Charles Dodgson牧师,和Derek Riddell,饰演占有欲极强的Barrie。他们定格在小说里的童年形象不时穿梭出入,出口成章、活泼吵闹,近乎残酷地满怀冒险精神,并且毫无畏惧:Ruby Bentall饰演金发且口无遮拦的爱丽丝,Olly Alexander则饰演长腿而好斗的彼得潘。
整部戏的结局因为其紧凑的节奏而让人心碎。在90分钟的大部分时间里,Michael Grandage的最新力作让我好像爱丽丝一样掉进了“眼泪湖”里——那种令人悲伤却能将人治愈的、只有伟大戏剧作品才能制造出来的感同身受,最感动观众的甚至不光是表面的悲剧,——虽然一战带走了Alice的两个儿子和Peter的一个哥哥,而他最小的弟弟也在牛津不幸溺水身亡,——这些事情自然被提到了,但通常触发感情的却是那些一闪即逝的台词,一次颔首或者舞台边缘某个沉默的身影:Dench的眼光轻轻落下或是Whishaw对着自己的影子——那个折磨他一生的调皮好动、冷酷无情的小说人物彼得潘微微耸肩的一瞬。
《彼得与爱丽丝》这部戏是一个关于成长与幻境破灭的悲伤故事,那些永远不会长大的人面对的悲伤甚至更为深远:那些死去了的,比如战争中倒下的孩子们,或者那些在恐惧或者生活在扭曲成人的世界里的人们。
Logan也讨论了将经过深思熟虑的、与自我认知挂钩的爱加于孩子身上,并要求过多回报的危险性。说起虐待,我们总是先想到身体上的,但是更微妙的危险却藏于孤独成年人的欲求之中。就像Alice说的,“我觉得我们都是生于悲伤,Alice与Peter。”而年轻人则回答说,“Jim叔叔(指J M Barrie)是我认识最孤独的人。”
Dench的表现无人能比:在书店中僵硬而不耐烦的、苍老的Alice忽然褪去了岁月的铅华,重新跃入了爱丽丝的橱柜幻想世界,在苍苍白发下容光焕发,老旧的衣裙像少女般轻舞飞扬,如果你正在渐渐变老,或者热爱老年人并欣赏他们的老当益壮,她的表现绝对能让你的心头敞亮起来。如果没有了Dench,Logan这出戏是否还能撑得起来是一个很难回答的问题:也许它的魔力就像Grandage的这次编排与戏里美得惊人的玩具舞台一样的背景一样转瞬即逝呢。
翻译:无敌的小站特约翻译员FF
PETER AND ALICE的相关媒体评论翻译小站会陆续更新
敬请期待!
Peter and Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre, WC2
Libby Purves
Published at 12:01AM, March 26 2013
★★★★★
In 1932, opening a bookshop exhibition, Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Davies. The elderly widow was once Lewis Carroll’s child-friend; the young man one of the boys who inspired J. M. Barrie. Thus Alice met Peter Pan. The playwright John Logan now imagines how they may have compared notes on being muses to odd, solitary men who needed to borrow childhood’s clouds of glory.
Judi Dench is Alice, Ben Whishaw is Peter; their fictional creators are Nicholas Farrell as the awkward Rev Charles Dodgson armoured with whimsy, and Derek Riddell as a possessive Barrie. Their fictional child-selves dart in and out, quoting and bickering, pitilessly adventurous, fearing nothing: Ruby Bentall is a golden-haired forthright Alice, Olly Alexander a leggy, bellicose Peter Pan.
The result is shattering in its intensity. For much of its 90 minutes, Michael Grandage’s latest production had me in a Pool of Tears as bad as Alice’s: the distressful, healing empathy which great theatre produces. It was not even the obvious tragedies that struck to the heart, though the First World War took two of Alice’s sons and Peter’s brother, and his youngest drowned at Oxford. These things are spoken of, but often the trigger for emotion is a throwaway line, a turn of the head, a silent figure at the stage’s edge: Dench glancing down or Whishaw shuddering for a moment at his shadow, the spry cold-hearted fictional child Peter who haunts him.
Peter and Alice is a play about the sadness of growing up into disillusion, and the greater sadness of those who never do. Who die, like lost boys in wartime, or live on stunted and afraid of adulthood.
Logan also shines a light on the risk of placing a burden of brooding, self-identifying love on children, and demanding too much in return. We think about abuse in physical terms, but a subtler danger is the neediness of lonely adults. As Alice says, “I think they were born out of sadness, Alice and Peter” . The young man replies: “Uncle Jim was the loneliest man I ever knew.”
Dench is unmatchable: old Alice stiff and snappish in the bookshop, suddenly shedding years to skip upstage into the cardboard fantasy, young beneath white hair, matronly frock swinging free. If you are growing old, or love the old and recognise their youthfulness, it breaks your heart open. Hard to know whether without Dench Logan’s play will endure: maybe its power is as evanescent as Grandage’s production and its breathtaking toy-theatre staging.
1932年,在一个书店里举行的一次展览中,Alice Liddell Hargreaves遇到了Peter Davis。这位上了年纪的寡妇曾是Lewis Carroll的少年至交,而这位年轻人则是J M Barrie创作彼得潘的灵感来源之一。于是爱丽丝和彼得潘见面了。剧作家John Logan现在则想象起了他们在如何不小心成为举止古怪、离索独居却带走了一片童真无邪的灿烂云彩的作家们的缪斯上这个问题上交换意见的情景。
Judi Dench饰演Alice,Ben Whishaw饰演Peter,而担任他们在文学上的创造者角色的则是Nicholas Farrell,饰演不善交际却巧思敏捷的Charles Dodgson牧师,和Derek Riddell,饰演占有欲极强的Barrie。他们定格在小说里的童年形象不时穿梭出入,出口成章、活泼吵闹,近乎残酷地满怀冒险精神,并且毫无畏惧:Ruby Bentall饰演金发且口无遮拦的爱丽丝,Olly Alexander则饰演长腿而好斗的彼得潘。
整部戏的结局因为其紧凑的节奏而让人心碎。在90分钟的大部分时间里,Michael Grandage的最新力作让我好像爱丽丝一样掉进了“眼泪湖”里——那种令人悲伤却能将人治愈的、只有伟大戏剧作品才能制造出来的感同身受,最感动观众的甚至不光是表面的悲剧,——虽然一战带走了Alice的两个儿子和Peter的一个哥哥,而他最小的弟弟也在牛津不幸溺水身亡,——这些事情自然被提到了,但通常触发感情的却是那些一闪即逝的台词,一次颔首或者舞台边缘某个沉默的身影:Dench的眼光轻轻落下或是Whishaw对着自己的影子——那个折磨他一生的调皮好动、冷酷无情的小说人物彼得潘微微耸肩的一瞬。
《彼得与爱丽丝》这部戏是一个关于成长与幻境破灭的悲伤故事,那些永远不会长大的人面对的悲伤甚至更为深远:那些死去了的,比如战争中倒下的孩子们,或者那些在恐惧或者生活在扭曲成人的世界里的人们。
Logan也讨论了将经过深思熟虑的、与自我认知挂钩的爱加于孩子身上,并要求过多回报的危险性。说起虐待,我们总是先想到身体上的,但是更微妙的危险却藏于孤独成年人的欲求之中。就像Alice说的,“我觉得我们都是生于悲伤,Alice与Peter。”而年轻人则回答说,“Jim叔叔(指J M Barrie)是我认识最孤独的人。”
Dench的表现无人能比:在书店中僵硬而不耐烦的、苍老的Alice忽然褪去了岁月的铅华,重新跃入了爱丽丝的橱柜幻想世界,在苍苍白发下容光焕发,老旧的衣裙像少女般轻舞飞扬,如果你正在渐渐变老,或者热爱老年人并欣赏他们的老当益壮,她的表现绝对能让你的心头敞亮起来。如果没有了Dench,Logan这出戏是否还能撑得起来是一个很难回答的问题:也许它的魔力就像Grandage的这次编排与戏里美得惊人的玩具舞台一样的背景一样转瞬即逝呢。
翻译:无敌的小站特约翻译员FF
PETER AND ALICE的相关媒体评论翻译小站会陆续更新
敬请期待!
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