40. God of carnage 撕殺之神。莫札特之死。遍地芳菲

God of carnage  撕殺之神

This year, Le French offers Yasmina Reza’s “Le dieu du carnage” in two versions, English and Cantonese (HKRT’s re-run of last year’s《豆泥戰爭》- 網誌 34). When I scribbled my reflections on last year’s production, I was benchmarking it against another play by the same playwright – “Art”《藝術》, also produced by HKRT. I won’t indulge in any comparison this time. Maybe just as well. As reported by Time Out, Hong Kong, the two casts never communicated with each other except for one chance encounter: when they ran into each other at Sheung Wan Civic Centre between rehearsals, Pang Hang-ying (who, incidentally, won deservedly last year’s Best Stage Actress, Comedy Category, playing Annette) called Sean Curran by the name of his character, “Alan”. 

NOTL-credentialed (playwright-in-residence) director Jovanni Sy demonstrates clearly complete mastery of his material. At the start of the play, the four performers remained rather inert in their respective seats on the living room sofa. This is to allow the audience to focus on establishing in their mind, through the dialogue, the personas of these roles. As palpable tension started to mount, we began to see carefully orchestrated and choreographed movements fully utilizing the rather simple set and props, particularly the coffee table. Throughout the escalation to the culminating pandemonium, not a single movement of a single set piece was haphazard, but put to their best use in support of the four actors, each “a very physically-gifted comedian” as Sy aptly put (quoted from the aforementioned Time Out interview).

I also like the ring tone used for Alan’s cell phone – as subdued as physically possible. At the frequency with which the ring occurred, anything that is above barely audible would be intolerable.   

Fondly known to the children segment of his fans as Uncle C.C. (which is hilarious in Cantonese), Lee Chun-chow has given the audience an excellent theoretical delivery of his lines. Still, the fact remains that this great actor is not a native English speaker nor, unlike Jo Chim, has he been using English as his primary media of stage performance. It is therefore a masterstroke to render in Cantonese the telephone conversion Michael (Lee’s character) had with his mother. Instantly, the production acquires a contemporary intimacy and the character an added dimension.   

The earliest of Du Pif’s work that I can remember is “The overcoat” (1998) which, in addition to Sean Curran and Bonni Chan, also featured two of today’s most prominent theatre personalities in Hong Kong – Victor Pang彭鎮南and Jacob Chan陳曙曦. The most memorable is last year’s Sunrise日出 (網誌 35). Both were essentially in Cantonese. For English productions, there was Harold Pinter’s “Ashes to Ashes” (2006) featuring the classic Bonnie and Sean duet.

Interestingly, as I did in網誌 34, director Sy also makes references to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, in the program note (“Q&A with director”). Maybe he has even watched the same production I saw in Toronto a couple of years ago (網誌 25). Anyway, hope to catch him this summer in Toronto in Dream in High Park - “The winter’s tale”.

莫札特之死

翻翻場刋，看到King Sir「導演的話」，才知道這劇本在港如此受歡迎，在荷理活改編成電影前的一年，King Sir 己把它帶到HKRT舞台，演莫札特的竟然還是尚明輝。後來King Sir 自己終於在十一年後「劇協」的製作中一過戲癮，演了Salieri。去年我看過小劇場版，「拉闊劇團 」 JCCAC 黑盒劇場的演出 (網誌 32)，雖然在資源限制下，製作硬件甚至角色都簡約了，但劇本的神髓完整的呈現在小小的JCCAC黑盒裏，值得一讚。

「中英」規模的演繹，又自是另一翻景象，盧智燊和黄龍斌同台演出自然看過不少，但如今次的主力「〝正面交鋒〞」，記憶中似乎只手1998年的《始皇最後的日子》(正確來說其實是加上伍潔茵和梁漢威的〝四重唱〞)，今次再看兩人拿着這經典劇本，互展混身解數，看得真開心。Constanze 這角色劇份不太多，但有層次，上次的朱仲暐和今次的胡麗英，都發揮得很好。上次因演出規模所限，沒有兩個風使的角式，今次有中英的規模，可以欣賞到兩位我很喜歡的演員吳家良和余俊峰。似前也提過中英混厚的〝外援〞資源，今次「啊盧」又回巢，加上HKRT 以前的元老葉進和尚明輝，和話劇粵劇雙棲的鍾一鳴，有點老朋友共聚的感覺。王曉怡演沒有台詞的凱瑟琳娜，叫人有點啼笑皆非，但出現了幾個或帥或酷的造型，也令人眼前一亮。

Peter Shaffer這個劇本，原著 (文本或舞台上) 沒有看過，但根據近兩齣翻譯製作，和84年的電影看來，重點較傾斜向 Salieri。從 Salieri POV講莫札特，本來仍然可以以莫札特為重心，但 Shaffer 似乎志不在此，要說的是更有戲劇性Salieri的故事，對莫札特落墨雖然亦不少，但强調的始終是他年少不覊的一面，至於這個粗俗的大孩子如何可以同時是一個有深度的空前絕後偉大音樂創作人，則沒有探討了。

舞台劇版象徵式採用了的莫札特歌劇片段，「拉闊劇團 」的選擇在網誌 32 裏也有略提，今次「中英」版本，The Magic Flute一場採用的卻不是Papageno 的輕鬆小曲，而用了莊嚴的神廟頌歌，更為合適。說到The Magic Flute，前年在港也看了一個十分不錯的演出《魔笛》，網誌 27 裏也有隨想。

Peter Shaffer 寫的劇，三年前在多倫多看了一齣 “Black comedy” (網誌 15)，把觀眾的 perception反轉來玩，舞台上用特强的燈光是代表停了電時的漆黑一片，角色變成「耍盲鷄」，一到了場景中有一點光源，如某角色亮了打火機或擦了火柴，舞台上的燈立刻轉暗，代表角色「開了眼」，很有趣，有意想不到的喜劇效果。

Amadeus (1984) - 電影

看完中英的精彩演出，回家後忍不住找出Amadeus DVD，重看了幾次那可能是有電影以來最好看的一段，又忍不住寫了下面一些：

The scene starts with Mozart on his death bed, too weak to even hold a pen, and Salieri at the end of the bed with pen and blank music score sheet. He is in the process of transcribing Mozart’s Requiem pouring forth from the great composer’s soaring creative energy in the last few hours of his life. They are at the section “consigned to flames of woe”. The previous section has ended in F major, and he wants now to start with A minor – that’s what we hear first from Mozart.

“Let’s start with the voices”, Mozart begins to dictate the notes for the basses to Salieri, humming them as he goes along. “Time?” Salieri asks. “Common time”, Mozart is obvious impatient as he moves on to the tenors. “Have you got it?” is something that he keeps asking Salieri throughout the entire process, checking and returning the scores Salieri tosses at him.

As they move into the orchestra portion of the music, Salieri is clearly dragging on behind, if not entirely lost. Wind and brass sections come in, first the bassoons and trombones, with identical notes, as described by Mozart and also heard in the background. “But I don’t understand” agonizes Salieri. “Instruments doubling up the voices” snaps Mozart who really has no time to waste. Timpani and trumpets, he moves on. Poor Salieri is hopelessly and completely lost. Mustering his last bits of patience, Mozart explains “That goes with the harmony”. He even illustrates with mimicking the sound of the timpani “Tum, tum, tum, tum”. Salieri is finally with him again, joining in the vocal harmony and transcribing feverishly.

“Is that all?” Salieri asks, mediocrity in the face of brilliance. Far from it, obviously. Mozart now brings in the strings, pulsating and ascending as Salieri miraculously is able to keep up with him. Then, to complete the voices are the sopranos and altos while the strings become supporting violins. “Do you have it?” Mozart keeps asking. “Not so fast” Salieri keeps pleading, and finally, in desperation, “One moment please”.

Finally he tosses the completed score to Mozart who looks at it and raises an arm, as if starting to conduct. A quick cut to a stunning frame - a carriage in the depth of night thundering across the wilderness, carrying Constanze racing to see her dying husband. Simultaneous, all the building up we just heard and saw (bass, tenor, wind, brass, timpani, string, soprano, alto) come to life in a glorious outburst of awe-inspiring harmony.

遍地芳菲

看這劇最忙的是「認人」！最低限度上半場是如此，打開場刋角色表，利用台上燈光較亮的時候，對照台上人物。雖然大部份HKRT演員己熟悉得合上眼只憑聽聲也認得出，但近兩三年的新血有些雖然看過不少，所演的角色如不太突出，也容易記得清楚，幸好有近距離的「黑盒劇場」，從《A “lone”》和《志輝和思蘭》中，分別熟悉了楊政楠和凌文龍 (綱誌 37和38)。至於「特邀演員」，看過《雪后》和《安娜與陳七》，都分別不會忘記王耀祖和彭珮嵐，但後者一開幕壓場的抱琵琶盲歌者，帶着墨鏡，一時也未認得，後來卻想到她在《一屋寶貝》中一曲《如果身處天上》，背景全然不同，但一樣的悲涼。另蘇育輝，文瑞興等，也很熟悉。前HKRT全職元老級演員歐陽奮仁也在「特邀」此列，細看之下，這也包括了陳安然，翻到場刋最後一頁HKRT演員名單印證一下，果然見不到她的名字，下半年《一年皇帝夢》的演出，相信她是繼續以這身份參與，對觀眾來說，只要欣賞到她的演出，行政的事宜，卻不必費心。

《遍地芳菲》已是二十多年前的劇本，而且雖然說了很多次，還是要說：杜國威劇本中的寫「情」，仍是一時無兩。這戲中有徐保生夫妻之情，林覺民思妻之情，徐母的母子之情，羅錞的父女之情，喻氏兄弟之情，羅坤和金喜不宣之情，黃興和黃一歐昇華了父子之情。在這種種細膩的描寫乘托下，那浩然的家國之情更是悲壯。如何將這些「情」一一在舞台上演繹出來，則要靠一班出色的演員了。

最直接打動觀眾的自然是陳安然和凌文龍的一對，言簡意深的對白，發揮得恰到好處，妻一句反問保生是否明白，正是杜Sir筆下之情最真最純之處。辛偉強和邱廷輝的一場，亦是不落俗套，培棣哭訴不忍見親兄犧牲性命，培倫的回答不是重複的家國大義，也不是深情相勸，只是一句〝這正就是我叫你先回四川的原因〞，兄弟之情至此，已是盡在不言中。潘燦良的林覺民之情，又是另一翻意境，身為領袖之一，他在全劇中表現的是信心，樂觀，理智，就是提到想念久別的愛妻，也只輕輕帶過，直至最後生死関頭，感情才釋放出來，那「與其使我先死也，無寧汝先吾而死」的深情，潘燦良演得真好。

角色表裏有三位「友情演出」者，對杜Sir 筆下的「情」也各自有發揮。無論在舞台上或銀幕上，廖啟智都是頂級演員 (多年前看過他的獨立電影《福伯》，至今仍念念不忘)，今次有他參與，使這齣精彩的劇更為出色。在這博客中我屢次提到對〝明星演話劇〞的存疑，今次看余安安卻很滿意，杜Sir寫這劇始終是照顧〝大圍〞(不是說沙田前一個車站) 觀眾，也搞了一點 Ray Clooney 式的錯摸 comedy，落在「保生母」一角身上，余安安應付自如，而後來更有挑戰性的是這個傳统的母親終於發現兒子是視死如歸的革命勇士，那感情的急劇轉變，和最後有點無奈的終明大義，她也駕馭得好。第三個「友情演出」是頗為另類的何偉龍聲音演繹黃興，在幕後的誓師集會發施師號令，領導群豪。沒有這段劃龍點晴的 VO，便托不起接着王耀祖演黃一歐對父親複雜感情的一段精彩演出。

最後有一位演員必需一讚：王維。在看過他的許多演出之中，似乎未有過今次演秦炳直如此的奸，從一出場〝視察形勢〞後才讓〝老細〞孚正出場開始，那陰森的機心給他演活了。