Titus Andronicus, which is known for blood and gore has never been a popular Shakespeare’s play. In china, the only record of performance of it is a student work from Shanghai Theater Academy in the first Shakespeare festival in 1986. This version of Titus Andronicus is a new production created by Director Tang Shu-wing on the basis of the version staged in Hong Kong Arts festival in 2008 and the subsequent Titus 2.0. It is better to say that Shakespeare’s plays are just a reason to explore theatre than to say that this production aims to explore the meaning of Shakespeare’s plays. Titus Andronicus has a minimalist style of theater, and thus the Shakespeare’s globe is a perfectly suitable place for performance.
以血腥,暴力著稱的《泰特斯•安多尼古》從來不是一個熱門的莎翁劇本。在中國,唯一的演出紀錄是在1986年首屆莎士比亞戲劇節上的上海戲劇學 院學生作品。這一個版本是鄧樹榮導演基於2008年香港藝術節的版本及其後續演繹的《泰特斯2.0》創作的新作品。與其說這部作品在挖掘莎劇的內 涵,不如說莎劇只是一個對於戲劇表演探索的理由。《泰特斯•安多尼古》秉承簡約劇場的風格,環球劇場是得天獨厚的場所。
Titus Andronicus is the first play of Shakespeare, which is a revenge story that happened in ancient Rome. It is full of bloodiness and absurdity, and can be regarded as the most brutal and violent work of Shakespeare. However, our so-called highly civilized society is still filled with all kinds of violence, how can such a play attract the audience? ‘The play is cruel. Yet the cruelty is not limited to one’s body but in one’s thoughts. That is to say both the language and ideas can be cruel. everyone has also the chance to be cruel and violent. As Buddhism believes ‘an idea derives from one’s heart; an idea can make a person a Buddha.’ Thus I feel the spirit behind the plot and story is relevant to us today… Today’s world is full of violence that we can see. yet there are hidden ones. Violence can be the language, concrete behaviour or even the eye expressions. I hope that this production shows how we should control our own violence and make the world in peace’. Director of the play Tung Shu-wing said.
《泰特斯•安多尼古》是莎士比亞首個劇本,一 個在古羅馬發生的復仇故事,充滿了血腥和荒 謬,堪稱莎翁最殘酷暴力的作品。然而,在現今 紛亂、充斥各式暴力的社會,這樣一個劇目要如 何吸引觀眾?“沒錯,它的題材很殘酷,但殘酷 不純粹侷限於身體上,而是意識上,即語言、想 法上的殘酷,每個人也有機會犯種種殘酷行為, 正如佛家所言’一念在心,一念成佛’,所以我覺 得這個題材和故事背後的精神與今天的我們依 然息息相關。劇本探討的是深層次的人性,或 許每個人都有暴力的傾向,只是都各自抑壓着。 這個世界充斥明暴力,但也有很多暗暴力湧現。 暴力可以是語言、具體行為,甚至眼神。我希望 透過這齣話劇表達人該如何控制自己的暴力, 令世界變得更和平。”──導演鄧樹榮
Aspects of the production may be criticized. Indeed, I would question why the potent style of story-telling in act one did not continue through the rest of the performance, while the chairs were not used again. Yet it should be noted that the Cantonese Titus Andronicus was not tailored for the 2012‘globe to globe festival’ but had originated some years previously to address the diverse perspectives and cultures of Hong Kong’s inhabitants. First presented in 2008 and then recreated in 2009 after receiving comments from local audiences, The production expressed the practitioners’ understanding of Shakespeare’s play and the way that this work–overcoming its cultural distances from the era and locale of Shakespeare’s life – could assist twenty-first-century Hong Kong artists to explore their concerns about today’s society and to pursue their individual artistic style. Not only an example of the diversity of today’s theatre in Hong Kong, it is also a statement that Shakespeare is ‘not of an age, but for all time’ and for everyone in the world.
在某些方面上,這部作品也許會引起爭議。 事實上,我也在想,為什麼在整部作品中,講 故事的敘述方式並沒有持續,椅子也不再使 用了。應該注意的是,這部作品並不是為此 次戲劇節量身定做的,而是幾年前為體現香 港的文化多樣性而創作,作品曾在2008年首 演,2009年吸取當地觀眾建議改編後重演。 這部作品體現了創作者對於莎士比亞戲劇的 理解,以及他們創作的方式——踰越了在時 間和空間上與莎士比亞生活的差異。這很有利 於21世紀的香港藝術家去體現他們對於當今 社會的擔憂以及展示每個人不同的藝術風格。 這種多樣性不僅僅是體現在當下的香港劇場, 更是體現在現今世界,莎士比亞不僅僅是一個 年代的,而是與時俱進的,是呈獻給世界上每 一 個 人 的 。
