7. What do you think is the best way to promote Shakespeare’s plays among the Chinese audiences?
莎士比亞的戲劇你認(rèn)為如何普及是最好的方式?
I don't know, i'm gonna find out. This afternoon I'm having a meeting with a woman who's very interested in helping to promote and sell tickets. I really don't know, I know there's a great love for Shakespeare here, as in anywhere, and you know the city that does more Shakespeare than any city in the world is Berlin. They're doing it in German; they're not doing in English. You translate Shakespeare, you lose the English poetry, but you don't lose the story, you don't lose the drama, you don't lose the
theatricality. So I think Shakespeare can do very well here, but I don't know... It's show-business, but business parts are not my strongest part. so I need people to help me and guide me, and I have people that help me and guide me. We'll see what happens. Next few months will be a big education.
我也不知道,我們還在嘗試中。全世界上演莎士比亞戲劇最多的城市是德國(guó)的柏林。他們也不是用英語(yǔ)原版上演的、而是翻譯成德語(yǔ)。雖然翻譯之后你的確會(huì)失去一些原作中的詩(shī)歌韻律,但故事本身的情節(jié)還在的。所以我想在中國(guó)莎士比亞肯定有市場(chǎng),在接下來(lái)的幾個(gè)月中我也會(huì)在這方面好好學(xué)習(xí)。
8. For English learners in China, do you think is necessary for them to read Shakespeare? And why?
中國(guó)的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者是否有必要閱讀莎士比亞?
Absolutely. People speak Shakespeare everyday; they don't know that Shakespeare invented hundreds of phrases even words that we use everyday. so if you speak English, you're speaking Shakespeare, as good as gold.
看看莎士比亞最愛用的單詞:【英語(yǔ)單詞趣談】二十個(gè)莎翁常用詞>>
Well, the whole point of Shakespeare is you were never meant to read Shakespeare. You're meant to go to see the plays. You know Shakespeare did never imagine someday somebody would take a book down of the shelf and read his plays, that's what they're for: they're blue prints, they're starting points, they're not meant to be read, and that's why Shakespeare’s ruined for kids in school because the teachers teach them these are the books you must read. They're not meant to be. You can't understand them unless you see them on the stage then all becomes clear.
So in that respect i would not, say, recommend read Shakespeare to improve your English, no, i would not say so. But if you could see a play and be excited about it, then go on and read it. I think that could be more of help. but reading a code.. i don't see there's anything for anybody, because so much has been left out, you don't see the actual play. the play is primarily an action more than words. Words are the last thing that happen in life. You have the thought, you have the feeling, you process it, it comes out in words. Words are the last thing that happens. put words first without trying to comfort where and how they're being expressed is what we say putting the cart before the horse. (滬江小編注:Put the cart before the horse. 英語(yǔ)諺語(yǔ),直譯“把車放在馬前面”,即“本末倒置”)
肯定是有必要的。莎士比亞其實(shí)發(fā)明了很多英語(yǔ)中的詞匯和說法,已經(jīng)完全融入這門語(yǔ)言本身,人們天天都講只是不自覺。所以如果你要講英語(yǔ)、其實(shí)你就是在講莎士比亞的語(yǔ)言。不過我想說,最好的讀懂莎士比亞的方法不是“讀”、而是“看”!莎士比亞在寫他的戲劇時(shí)從沒有想過讓人們坐在那里、抱一本書讀這些劇本。他想的是你們會(huì)到劇院里去看表演!劇本只是一個(gè)開始、一個(gè)提綱、是表演的指導(dǎo),只有你去看了整出戲,才能更好地了解莎士比亞。所以對(duì)于中國(guó)的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者,我建議你們先到劇院里看莎士比亞、再回來(lái)重讀劇本,這可能是最好的方法,不然就真的本末倒置了。
9. You set up a Second World War background for this Twelfth Night, why?
你為這次的十二夜設(shè)置了一個(gè)二戰(zhàn)的背景,為什么?
It's not the background of WW2, it's the background just before WW2. 1939 the war broke out, well it depends how you look at, people are catching up. You know they always say that the war began when Hilter invaded Poland. But now, that's a very Europe Centraled, western view. You know the war really began when Japan invaded china. But that was earlier, people don't look at it, but in terms of Europe, by putting it in 1939, it gives the characters... It's sort of explain the motive, they're all trying to falling in love with each other in a very desperate, frantic way. If there's a big black cloud rolling in called WW2, this would explain this kind of frantic behavior. i don't know if i explained this frantic behavior but it gives it a good setting.
Also I think I prefer to put Shakespeare like modern, or simulmodern setting because when you dress Shakespeare tights and funny colors, you take something that's already alien to most people and make it more alien. So when you put it in a modern time it gives people a way in. But this is a good period to do it, the costumes are fabulous.
There's a great French film, some people consider it the greatest movie ever made. It's called the rules of the game, by a great French film writer Jean Renoir. The stories were also in 1939, and it was made in 1939. The stories are different, but the characters are very similar, they're all trying to find love, and they all have this desperation about love. I made all my actors watch it, to see the period and to see the clothing. But he describes his characters as dancing on the edge of a volcano, that's really a good metaphor for what we're trying to do in this play.
具體說來(lái)背景設(shè)定在二戰(zhàn)前的1939年,因?yàn)槲矣X得這能更好地解釋為什么劇中人物那么快就彼此墜入愛河。因?yàn)槿绻愀械綉?zhàn)爭(zhēng)很快就要開始,那么在這些方面可能情緒會(huì)更容易迸發(fā)。另一方面,我喜歡為莎士比亞的戲劇設(shè)置一個(gè)現(xiàn)代、至少是近代的背景。因?yàn)槿绻蜒輪T們打扮成穿著好笑戲服的古代人,可能會(huì)讓很多觀眾覺得戲劇中的故事離他們很遙遠(yuǎn)。
有一部非常著名的法國(guó)電影叫做《游戲規(guī)則》(The rules of the game),就是在1939年拍攝、并且講述的是1939年的故事。這個(gè)故事的情節(jié)和《第十二夜》很像,我讓所有我的演員都看這部戲。這部電影的導(dǎo)演曾說戲中的演員是“在火山邊緣舞蹈”,我想這也是我希望演員們?cè)凇兜谑埂分羞_(dá)到的狀態(tài)。