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‘Shawshank’ in China, as You’ve Never Seen It Before
1月，一部由能说流利普通话的西方演员出演的话剧《肖申克的救赎》在北京开演。 最近，话剧《肖申克的救赎》在中国公演，演员全部由能说流利普通话的西方演员担任。不过，这或许是整个演出最不令人惊讶的地方。 6park.com 6park.comThat the show — an adaptation of the Stephen King novella that became one of the most beloved movies of all time — was staged at all seemingly flew in the face of several trends in China’s cultural sphere. 6park.com该剧改编自斯蒂芬·金的中篇小说，这本小说后来被拍成有史以来最受观众喜爱的电影之一。而该剧能够上演本身，似乎就与中国文化领域当下的一些趋势背道而驰。 6park.com 6park.comChinese audiences’ interest in Hollywood films is fading, with moviegoers turning to homegrown productions. China’s authoritarian government has stoked nationalism and cast Western influence as a political pollutant. Censorship of the arts has tightened. 6park.com中国观众对好莱坞电影的兴趣正在消退，开始转向国产电影。中国的专制政府煽动民族主义，将西方影响视为政治污染，对艺术的审查日益严格。 6park.com 6park.comYet the production reflects how some artists are trying to navigate the changing landscape of both what is permissible and what is marketable in China. And its success shows the appetite that many Chinese still have for cultural exchange. 6park.com然而，这部作品反映了一些艺术家正试图驾驭不断变化的环境，探索什么是被允许的，什么是被市场接受的。该剧的成功也表明，许多中国人仍然对文化交流怀有浓厚兴趣。
When a stage production of “The Shawshank Redemption” opened recently in China, it was cast entirely with Western actors speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese. But that may have been the least surprising part of the show. 6park.com
话剧中的一个场景。 《肖申克的救赎》讲述了一个被误判谋杀罪的人反抗监狱官的暴政，最终成功惊险越狱的故事，它曾在中国受到审查。2012年，一名着名的中国持不同政见者逃脱软禁，逃往美国大使馆后，网上对该片的提及曾一度遭到审查。总的来说，中国政府对呼吁自由和反抗不公正的行为，无论是艺术作品还是其他形式，都表现出了极低的容忍度。 6park.com 6park.comThere were also logistical challenges. The production team wanted to use foreign actors to make the adaptation feel more authentic. But the number of expatriates in China has plummeted in recent years, making wrangling enough foreigners who could speak stage-worthy Mandarin — a small pool to begin with — even more difficult. China’s economic slowdown has also made audiences reluctant to spend on the theater. 6park.com此外还有选角方面的挑战。制作团队希望使用外国演员，让这次的改编更原汁原味。但近年来，在中国的外籍人士数量急剧下降，这使得找到足够多普通话说得可以登台表演的外国人变得更加困难，而且符合条件的外国人本就不多。中国经济的放缓也使得观众减少了看话剧的支出。 6park.com 6park.comAll of which made the show’s arrival in China maybe not as tricky as a prison escape, but certainly not a sure bet. 6park.com所有这一切都使得该剧在中国上演也许不像越狱那样艰难，但肯定也不是稳操胜券。 6park.com 6park.com“I did accept the project thinking, ‘This sounds like a great idea, if they can pull it off,’” said Mark Rowswell, a Canadian comedian and television personality who played Red, the jailhouse smuggler immortalized in the film by Morgan Freeman. 6park.com加拿大喜剧演员和电视名人大山(Mark Rowswell)说：“我接受这个项目时确实是这样想的，‘这听起来是个好主意，如果他们能成功的话。’”他扮演了在同名电影中因摩根·弗里曼的演绎成为经典角色的监狱走私犯瑞德。 6park.com 6park.com“But you have to be prepared, you just never know,” continued Mr. Rowswell, who is widely known in China by his stage name, Dashan. He has been performing in the country since the 1980s, when he was one of the few foreigners fluent enough. “You might do two months of rehearsal and the whole thing gets canceled.” 6park.com大山还说：“但你必须做好准备，因为你不知道会怎么样”。大山这个名字在中国广为人知。他从20世纪80年代起就在中国演出，当时他是为数不多能说流利汉语的外国人之一。他说，“你可能排练两个月，结果整个演出都被取消了。”
“The Shawshank Redemption” — the story of a man wrongfully convicted of murder who defies prison officials’ tyranny and eventually pulls off a daring escape — has been a target for Chinese censors before. Mentions of it were briefly censored online in 2012, after a prominent Chinese dissident escaped house arrest and fled to the American Embassy. In general, the Chinese authorities have shown little tolerance for calls, artistic or otherwise, for freedom and resistance to injustice. 6park.com
在中国广为人知的大山在剧中扮演瑞德。 该剧最初在深圳的售票情况并不理想，但上个月在北京一个容纳1600人的剧场连演四晚时，门票几乎售罄。该剧在豆瓣上的评分高达7.8分，并计划在春季进行全国巡演。 6park.com 6park.comCasts from overseas productions have long toured in China, and Chinese actors have played Mandarin-language adaptations of roles that originated abroad. But this was billed as the first Mandarin production to feature an all-foreign cast. 6park.com长久以来，海外制作团队的演员会来中国巡演，中国演员也会扮演改编自国外作品的中文版。但这是第一部全部由外国演员出演的中文话剧。 6park.com 6park.comThe genesis of the idea, in the production team’s telling, was simple: The “Shawshank” film was hugely popular in China, so surely theatergoers would want to see it, too. And since it was a foreign story, why not find foreign actors? 6park.com根据制作团队的说法，这个想法的起源很简单：电影版《肖申克的救赎》在中国大受欢迎，因此剧院观众肯定也想看。既然是外国故事，为什么不找外国演员呢？ 6park.com 6park.comThat seemingly straightforward calculus, though, created a host of questions about translation, both linguistic and cultural. 6park.com然而，这种看似简单的考虑却带来了大量有关翻译的问题，有语言方面的，也有文化方面的。 6park.com 6park.comThe director, Zhang Guoli, is a prominent Chinese actor and director who was trained in xiangsheng, a form of classical Chinese comedy. The 11 actors came from eight countries, including the United States, Finland and Russia. Fluency in Mandarin was more important than professional stage experience; the hero Andy Dufresne was played by James Clarke, a national director with the Australia China Business Council. 6park.com该剧的导演张国立是中国着名演员和导演，曾接受过相声的训练，这是一种中国古典喜剧形式。11名演员来自8个国家，包括美国、芬兰和俄罗斯。与专业舞台经验相比，流利的普通话更为重要；主人公安迪·杜佛兰由澳大利亚中国工商业委员会的会长柯雅各(James Clarke)扮演。
After initially slow ticket sales in Shenzhen, the show’s four-night run in Beijing last month, in a 1,600-seat theater, nearly sold out. The production had a rating of 7.8 on Douban, a crowdsourced review site, and a nationwide tour is planned for the spring. 6park.com
导演张国立是一位杰出的演员和导演，曾接受过中国古典喜剧形式相声的训练。 在排练过程中，演员们必须将西方常见的白话戏剧风格与张国立的古典训练相协调。 6park.com 6park.comThere were also thornier questions of adaptation, particularly, what would get by China’s censors. 6park.com此外，还有更棘手的改编问题，尤其是什么能通过中国的审查。 6park.com 6park.comThe script the Chinese production used was a translation of a 2009 stage adaptation by two writers from the United Kingdom, Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns. Both the 2009 script and the Hollywood film are filled with profanities and include explicit references to the sexual violence that Andy endures in prison. 6park.com中方使用的剧本，译自2009年两位英国编剧欧文·奥尼尔和戴夫·约翰斯改编的舞台剧版。2009年的剧本和好莱坞的电影版都充斥着脏话，并包含安迪在狱中遭受性暴力的直接描述。 6park.com 6park.comThe Chinese version used only mild profanity. One character used the word rape, but briefly. Unlike in the movie and original play, there was no mention of homosexuality. 6park.com中文版话剧只使用了最低限度的脏话。一个角色用到了“强奸”这个词，但一晃而过。与电影和原剧不同的是，中文版没有提及同性恋。
During rehearsals, actors had to reconcile a more vernacular style of theater often found in the West with Mr. Zhang’s classical training. 6park.com
扮演男主角安迪的柯雅各（左）和扮演监狱长的安地（Andy Friend，右）在排练中。 该剧的出品人姚怡说，在宣传采访中，演职人员都强调了故事的主题“希望”，而没有强调“自由”，因为他们知道后者可能会被视为敏感话题。 6park.com 6park.comStill, other parts that may have been difficult to include in a contemporary Chinese play remained intact. Characters recited Bible verses. The overall plot — and its sympathetic portrayal of the prisoners — remained unchanged. 6park.com不过，其他一些在当代中国戏剧中很难出现的部分仍然保留了下来。剧中人物会背诵《圣经》经文。整体情节，以及对囚犯的同情刻画都保持不变。 6park.com 6park.comStage productions are often less tightly regulated than movies, given their smaller audiences. Copyright laws also limited how much the production team could alter. 6park.com由于受众相对较少，对话剧的监管往往没有电影那么严格。版权法也限制了制作团队能够做的改动程度。 6park.com 6park.comThe use of foreign actors may also have reassured the authorities that it was “a purely Western story,” and “not an allegory after all,” Mr. Rowswell said. 6park.com大山说，使用外国演员也可能让当局放心，这是“一个纯粹的西方故事”，而“不是比喻性的故事”。 6park.com 6park.comMs. Yao said she was confident audiences would be receptive to the story, too. 6park.com姚怡说，她相信观众也会接受这个故事。 6park.com 6park.com“The Shawshank Redemption” is still the highest-rated movie — of all films, not just foreign ones — on Douban, showing that Chinese audiences had not entirely turned away from Hollywood, she said. And Chinese theatergoers especially were a self-selecting group, hungry for more international perspectives, she said. “People who go watch plays,” she said, “are looking for a kind of spiritual fulfillment.” 6park.com她说，《肖申克的救赎》仍然是豆瓣评分最高的电影——在所有电影中，不仅仅是外国电影——这表明中国观众并没有对好莱坞完全失去兴趣。而且中国的话剧观众尤其是一个会做自我选择的群体，他们渴望更多的国际视角。她说：“话剧观众是有精神追求的。”
During publicity interviews, the cast and crew leaned into the story’s theme of hope, without emphasizing freedom, said Yao Yi, the show’s producer, knowing the latter could be considered sensitive. 6park.com
该剧出品人姚怡说，她相信观众会接受这个故事。 但剧组成员也承认，需要适应中国观众不断变化的口味。 6park.com 6park.comBen Hubley, an American who played the young inmate Tommy, said he hoped the production would be a “subtle but important” bridge between the United States and China amid deteriorating relations. Yet he doubted the show would have been as popular if it had merely been performed in English. 6park.com在剧中扮演年轻囚犯汤米的美国人胡柏立(Ben Hubley)说，他希望该剧能在中美关系不断恶化的情况下，成为中美之间一座“微妙而重要”的桥梁。但他怀疑如果该剧仅以英语演出，是否还会如此受欢迎。 6park.com 6park.com“It feels like the intention behind it is much clearer than just, like, a big American production coming in,” Mr. Hubley said. “I think we’ve gotten to a point where if you want to come here, your intention behind the project is super important.” 6park.com“感觉这部剧背后的意图要比一部单纯的美国大制作更加明确，”胡柏立说，“我认为现在已经到了这样一个地步：如果你想来这里，项目背后的意图就格外重要。” 6park.com 6park.comAfter one of the shows in Beijing, the question of how to categorize the production seemed far from many audience members’ minds. As the crowd — which included children, young adults and grandparents — spilled into the lobby of Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, taking photos with cardboard cutouts of the actors and posing with prop beer bottles, several theatergoers said they went simply because they loved the movie. 6park.com在北京的一场演出结束后，许多观众似乎并没有考虑如何归类这部作品的问题。北京天桥演艺中心的大厅里挤满了观众，其中有儿童、年轻人和祖父母，他们纷纷与演员的纸板剪影合影，并拿着道具啤酒瓶摆出各种姿势，好几个观众说他们来这里是因为他们热爱那部电影。 6park.com 6park.comLi Zuyi, a recent college graduate, said he at first hadn’t known the cast was foreign. He has seen ‘Shawshank’ more than 10 times — a still of Andy after his escape was his phone background — and he would have gone to see the play regardless. 6park.com刚刚大学毕业的李祖义（音）说，他一开始并不知道演员都是外国人。他已经看过十多遍《肖申克的救赎》——安迪越狱后的剧照是他的手机背景图——无论如何，他都会来看这部话剧。
But cast members also acknowledged the need to adapt to Chinese audiences’ changing tastes. 6park.com
上个月，该剧在北京一个容纳1600人的剧场连演四晚，几乎场场爆满。 但另一位28岁的观众安妮·董（音）说，看到外国演员说普通话的新奇感吸引了她。她说，她确实希望看到“本土化”的海外故事，并说，剧本中融入的中国俚语让人感觉更亲切。 6park.com 6park.comShe hoped eventually to see foreigners acting not only in adaptations of foreign plays, but in Chinese ones too. “This kind of cultural blending and collision is something I look forward to,” she said. 6park.com她希望最终不仅能看到外国人改编外国戏剧，也能看到他们改编中国戏剧。她说：“这种文化的交融和碰撞，我觉得是挺期待的。” 6park.com 6park.comBut the factors that made this production hard-won may continue to be an obstacle. 6park.com然而，使这部剧来之不易的因素，可能仍将是一个障碍。 6park.com 6park.comThe number of Americans learning Mandarin has fallen in recent years, and the population of foreigners in cities like Beijing and Shanghai has not recovered from its drop during the pandemic. Many Westerners also remain wary of traveling to China amid its inward turn. 6park.com近年来，学习普通话的美国人数量有所下降，北京和上海等城市的外国人数量也没有从疫情期间的下降中恢复过来。在中国更加内转的过程中，许多西方人也对前往该国旅行保持警惕。 6park.com 6park.comMr. Rowswell was in Canada when he was approached for this play, and until then, he had not known when he would return. 6park.com收到这部话剧的邀约时，大山还在加拿大，那时候他不知道自己何时才能回到中国。 6park.com 6park.com“Perhaps it’s something that will become more difficult in the future, not easier,” he said of similar productions. 6park.com对于类似的制作，他说：“也许今后会变得更困难，而不是更容易。”
But another audience member, Annie Dong, 28, said the novelty of seeing foreign actors speaking Mandarin had attracted her. She did want to see overseas stories “localized,” she said, adding that the script’s incorporation of Chinese slang made it feel more relatable. 6park.com
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