‘Mockingbird’ Is a Hit at Home
《梅岡城故事》在老家熱賣
By Jennifer Crossley Howard
MONROEVILLE, Alabama – Each April and May during “play season,” as locals call it, the hotels in this town of 6,300 routinely sell out on weekends. Lines form at the restaurants. The charter buses carrying ticketholders stream off the highway.
每逢4、5月,當地人稱為「戲劇季」的期間,人口6300人的這個小鎮(阿拉巴馬州門羅維爾鎮),周末時飯店經常一房難求。餐廳也是大排長龍。高速公路上,載著包車看戲乘客的巴士絡繹不絕。
For nearly all of the 26 years it has been produced, the play “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been a hit here in the hometown of its author, Harper Lee. Amateurs re-enact the novel as a drama in front of and inside the courthouse where Ms. Lee’s father, the lawyer she shaped into Atticus Finch, once practiced.
儘管推出已26年,《梅岡城故事》這齣戲在小說原著作者哈波.李的故鄉幾乎年年轟動。業餘表演者將這本小說改編成戲劇,在法院前或法院內搬上舞台,這法院是李女士律師父親的工作場所,她將父親塑造成書中的阿提克斯.芬奇。
But this year, the 18 performances sold out faster than ever – 4,000 tickets were gone in five days – a surge that organizers attribute to the excitement over the news that Ms. Lee, at 88, will publish a second novel this summer, “Go Set a Watchman.” “It’s the town’s best season,” said Sandy Smith of the Monroeville/Monroe County Chamber of Commerce.
不過,今年18場表演門票比以往任何時候都賣得更快,4000張門票5天銷售一空,主辦單位將之歸功於88歲的李女士今夏將出版第二本小說《你去設立守望的》掀起的熱潮。門羅維爾/門羅郡商會的珊迪.史密斯說:「這是銷售最好的一季。」
Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation is faithful to Ms. Lee’s portrayal of merciless racism in 1930s Alabama, and the townspeople over the years have performed it as far away as Israel and China. But on the opening night for the season, they performed it as they long have at the Old Monroe County Courthouse, where the audience sat in benches or watched from the back – standing room only – just as Ms. Lee describes the courtroom in Chapter 16 of her novel. Atticus Finch sat with his arm around the accused, Tom Robinson. In the balcony, a black woman sang a mournful plea to let her people go. Jem, Scout’s brother, was brave and responsible.
克里斯多佛.塞吉爾的舞台改編劇,非常忠於李女士對1930年代阿拉巴馬州無情種族主義的描述,而多年來,鎮民最遠甚至曾到以色列和中國大陸演出。本季的首演夜一仍長久以來的傳統,在「老門羅郡法院大樓」演出,觀眾或坐長椅,或從只有站席的後方欣賞演出,法院和李女士在小說16章中所描繪的一樣。阿提克斯.芬奇和被告湯姆.羅賓森坐在一起,他以手臂摟著他。陽台上,一個黑人女子在歌唱,悲傷懇求讓她的同胞無罪釋放。傑姆,史考特的哥哥,一臉勇敢和負責的表情。
The audience members included a busload from Florence, Alabama, five hours north, and people from Texas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana and, as often happens, some international visitors. Goran and Katarina Olsson Trampe of Mariestad, Sweden, were touring the South and decided to come to the show after it had sold out; they were let in, they said, when they mentioned the distance they had traveled.
觀眾包括來自北方5小時車程的阿拉巴馬州佛羅倫斯鎮的一整車人,還有從德州、印第安納州、佛羅里達州、路易斯安納州來的,以及經常可見的若干國際遊客。來自瑞典馬里史塔德的葛朗和卡塔琳娜.奧爾森.川培,在美國南部遊覽時,決定前來看戲,當時門票已售罄。他們說,當他們說明是如何不遠千里而來後,獲准入場觀賞。
But Ms. Lee, who lives in an assisted living home three kilometers from the courthouse, has never attended the play, according to organizers at the Monroe County Heritage Museum. The museum has produces the show each year, but will hand-over production next year to a nonprofit the author founded after a licensing dispute.
門羅郡傳統博物館說,李女士住在離法院3公里的一個輔助生活之家,從未到場看這部戲。博物館每年製作這部戲劇,但發生授權糾紛後,明年準備將製作工作移交給李女士設立的一個非營利組織。
Workers flood Monroeville during the weeks when the nearby pulp mill shuts down. The Alabama Writer’s Symposium also draws a crowd to this town, which bills itself as the Literary Capital of Alabama, because of Ms. Lee and because Truman Capote, her friend, lived there as a child. Ms. Smith estimates that Monroeville hotels will see $200,000 in sales during play season.
附近的紙漿廠停工的那幾周,工人會湧向門羅維爾。阿拉巴馬作家研討會舉行時,也會吸引人潮到這個小鎮,因為李女士,也因為她的朋友楚門.卡波提在此度過童年,門羅維爾鎮自封為阿拉巴馬州的文學之都。史密斯估計,門羅維爾旅館今年戲劇季營收可望達到20萬美元。
At the Ol’ Curiosities and Book Shoppe, the owner Spencer Madrie has ordered 5,000 copies of “Go Set a Watchman.” Because demand is high to receive a copy of the book from Monroeville – which would include an embossed gold seal indicating it is from Ms. Lee’s hometown – he said that he expected to order at least 15,000 books by July.
在「好奇與圖書商店」,店主史賓塞.麥德里已預購5000冊《你去設立守望的》,想從門羅維爾收到這本書的需求很高,這些書將蓋上一個金色浮雕圖案的書戳,說明它來自李女士的老家。麥德里說,他預估7月前訂單至少會增至1萬5000本。
“People come here with or without the play,” Ms. Smith said. “The good thing about the play is it’s a concentrated focus. You’ve got a thousand people a week coming in. Without the play, you have people coming in, but not at that level.”
史密斯說:「有沒有戲劇上演,人們都會來到這裡。戲劇的好處在於它是一個集中的焦點。每周因此會有一千人來此。沒有戲劇,還是有人來,只是沒有多到那種程度。」
原文參照:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/books/to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-a-stage-hit-at-home-in-monroeville-ala.html
2015-05-12聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右