紐時賞析／疫情期間再現 新版戲劇「長夜漫漫路迢迢」

A Reimagined"Long Day's Journey Into Night"for the COVID Era

疫情期間再現「長夜漫漫路迢迢」

Of the time-honored classics of American theater, Eugene O’Neill’s “Long

Day’s Journey Into Night” is one that usually takes its own concept of

time seriously. A four-act work based on the playwright’s own

dysfunctional parents, it follows the disintegration of the Tyrone

family — by disease, ego, addiction and codependency — through the

course of a claustrophobic August day at their seaside home in

Connecticut. Widely considered O’Neill’s masterpiece, it typically

runs just under four hours.

美國戲劇久享盛名的經典作品中，尤金．歐尼爾的「長夜漫漫路迢迢」平常都以其非常從容的步調演出。這部四幕劇作品以作者本身失能的父母為背景，講述泰隆一家8月在康乃狄克州海邊家中度過幽閉恐怖一天，因疾病、自我、毒癮與相互依賴而解體的故事。被公認為是歐尼爾傑作的這齣戲劇，演出時間通常接近4小時。

Writer-director Robert O’Hara, a Tony nominee for his direction of

“Slave Play,” is doing it in under two.

執導「奴隸遊戲」而獲東尼獎提名的編劇兼導演羅伯特．奧哈拉，把演出時間縮短到2小時以下。

Presented without an intermission by Audible at the Minetta Lane

Theatre, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”is for a shortened production

that confronts the play’s themes head-on and brings them into 2022.

由Audible公司推出、在明奈塔巷劇院上演的「長夜漫漫路迢迢」，沒有中場休息時間，而且是個縮減版製作，迎面對決這齣戲劇的主題，並將其帶入2022年。

“There is so much velocity in the writing that it moves at a fast clip,

and with so much richness,” O’Hara said after a rehearsal last month.

“The family doesn’t get an intermission throughout this one long day,

so it’s quite interesting to get to sit with them in real time.”

奧哈拉在上月一次排練後說：「這個劇本充滿速度，所以步調很快，且內容非常豐富。這家人在漫長一天裡沒有休息時間，因此能跟他們坐在一起即時體驗是相當有趣的。」

The decision to trim the material happened early and organically,

O’Hara explained.

奧哈拉解釋說，很早就決定刪減劇本，且相當自然。

“Once you put the knife in, you’re just like, ‘Are we going to pretend

that we’re not editing this?’ ” he quipped. It was then bolstered by his

wariness of having people gather for too long, given the latest COVID-19

variant.

他打趣說：「一旦你開始動刀，就會想『我們要假裝我們沒有修剪這個嗎』？」考量到最新變種新冠病毒，當時他擔心人們群聚太久的謹慎態度，也支持這想法。

“For me, it feels like a COVID production of ‘Long Day’s Journey Into

Night,’ built for right now,” he said. “We didn’t want to ask an audience

to sit for four hours in a theater just because that’s the way it’s

usually done. If anyone’s coming in looking for that experience, they

should know that it’s not this.”

他說：「對我而言，這就像個新冠病毒版的『長夜漫漫路迢迢』，為了現在而製作。我們不想要求觀眾在劇院內坐4小時，只因為平常都是這麼做。如果有人來尋找那種體驗，他們應該知道這次不是這樣。」

O’Hara credits actress Elizabeth Marvel, who portrays the morphine-addicted

mother, Mary, as instrumental to getting the production off the ground.

這個製作得以成功進行，奧哈拉將其歸功於劇中扮演吸毒成癮母親瑪麗的女演員伊麗莎白．馬威爾。

“We started just talking about this play, but then the world made its

urgency all the greater,” Marvel said. “I’ve seen probably 11 or 12

productions in my lifetime, and it’s always the same: in the same drawing

room with billowing curtains, and with period corsets.

馬威爾說：「我們一開始只是討論這齣戲劇，但後來世界讓這個製作變得更急迫。我這輩子大概看過11到12次不同製作，但每次都一樣：在一個掛有飄逸窗簾的客廳裡，穿著舊時的緊身胸衣。」

“But there’s absolutely no reason,” she continued, “it can’t be right here,

right now. It very much speaks to this moment, when a lot of people are

having to return home to their families, dealing with addiction and

codependency during a crisis, while not being able to get out.”

她繼續說道：「但這絕對沒道理，此時此地不是那樣。這齣戲相當能呈現此刻，許多人不得不回家跟家人團聚，在危機中因應毒癮與相互依賴，而且無法出門。」

文／Juan A. Ramírez 譯／陳韋廷