E-Station is the work of Director Wang Chong from Théatre du Rêve Expérimental, which is the only production having its own independent webpage about its information among the above- mentioned productions of mainland China. This should be relevant to the director’s experience of overseas study, for archiving of works and webpage publicity for one work are details usually overlooked by domestic theatrical companies. There are some interesting words by the director worthy of mentioning here.
“Beijing’s theater has nothing to do with the reality of China, nor does it have anything to do with the development of theater all over the world. People who work inside and outside theater system drive their cars inside and outside the system, flying in the space between bureaucratic ground and entertainment ground spotlessly and never landing the ground. They produce series of works praising our officials to the skies, portraying out-and-out scoundrels, and pretending to be crazy and stupid, which change theaters into bureaucratic ground and entertainment ground.
During the rehearsals, the performers of E-Station interacted with various unconventional public spaces such as corridors, lobbies and busy streets, transforming them into new spaces with their silent physical bodies in the high-speed operation and hubbub of the society, which are only related to theater, physical bodies and social reality, rather than bureaucratic ground and entertainment ground.”
These words reveal a lot of interesting information, such as this theatrical company’s independent nature, artistic aspirations for pure theater, experiential ways of creation, realistic themes, as well as physical theater characteristics of this production, etc. The origin of this work is worth mentioning, it is inspired by the theater aesthetics of quietude in Director Ohta Shogo’s silent trilogy, namely The Water Station, The Earth Station and The Wind Station. Meanwhile, it is highly ambitious to try to interpret the complex relationship between people and electrical appliances and electronic products in this age.
《電之驛站》是薪傳劇團導演王翀的作品。是 幾部中國大陸地區作品中唯一一個擁有獨立 網頁作品信息的。這一點應該和導演本人的留 學經歷有關,作品的歸檔和單部作品的信息頁 宣傳是國內劇團經常忽略的細節。在看作品之前,讀了網站上導演的話:“北京的戲劇與中國 的現實無關。北京的戲劇也與世界戲劇的發 展無關。體制內外的戲劇人駕着體制內外的華 車,在官場和歡場間的半空中飛來飛去,一塵 不染,從不落地。他們用歌功頌德、男盜女娼、 裝瘋賣傻的作品序列把劇場也變成了官場和歡 場。”“通過在樓道、大廳、鬧市街頭等非常規場 所近乎修煉式的訓練,《電之驛站》的演員們 在高速流轉、眾聲喧嘩的社會環境中用沉默的 身體創造出一個全新的時空:只和戲劇、身體 與社會的現實相關,與官官和歡歡無關。”
這段話透露着很多有意思的信息,比如這個劇 團的獨立性質,對於純粹戲劇的藝術訴求,體 驗式的創作方式,現實主義的取材,以及這部 劇的肢體表演特徵等。作品頗有源頭,靈感取 自太田省吾導演無言劇三部曲《水之驛站》、《 地之驛站》和《風之驛站》中緩慢的劇場美學。 同時創作的野心很大,試圖詮釋人與電器,電子 產品在這個時代的複雜關係。
looking at E-Station from the perspective of scenography1
Walking into the lobby of the hotel, grabbing the ticket in hand for the performance, climbing a flight of stairs, I came into a space similar to a conference room, where seats were silently placed just like participating in a launch of scientific and technological products, and this space seemed to have nothing to do with theater. The area opposite to these seats was regarded as a performance area, where the floor was covered with keyboards and cables, and an open refrigerator was stacked with things I had no idea. A woman sat quietly at the exit of the performance area, playing with electronic music controllers that only she knew how to operate. The unintentional spatial arrangement of Edinburgh Fringe Festival contributed to the presentation of E-Station that is a play full of “indifference”. The performance of a production that does not praise our officials to the skies and a space without any emotions naturally complement with each other; however, how to make keyboards scattered across the floor and the refrigerator express themselves, perhaps the director still needs to put more effort into scenography. After seeing the performance, I walked up to that quiet woman sitting at the exit and said to her, “the background music you designed is excellent.”
從scenography1的角度看《電之驛站》
走進酒店的大堂,取了演出票,轉上樓梯,便 到了一個類似於會議室的空間,裡面的座椅就 像參加一次科技產品發佈會般冷冷地排放著, 這裡似乎與戲劇無關。座椅對面的區域被稱 為表演區,仔細一看地上佈滿了鍵盤,纜線, 開放的冰箱裡也不知堆放了何物。表演區的下 場門處坐著一位安靜的女子,擺弄着只有她才 明白的電子音樂操盤器。愛丁堡藝術節這樣無 意的空間安排成全了《電之驛站》這樣一個充 滿“冷漠”的戲。在一個沒有任何感情色彩的空 間裡演出一個並不歌功頌德的戲自然是相得 益彰的,但是怎麼讓滿地凌亂的鍵盤和不知所 云的冰箱充滿自己的語彙,可能導演還需要在 Scenography上做點功課。此戲看到末,還是 那位下場門處安靜的女子讓我走上前對她說:“ 你的聲場設計真不錯。”
