拉提根之谜（2011）

And I would take Rattigan’s true subject to be…
命运的不可抗
the impossibility of escaping who you are.
你生来如此 这就是你的命运
You’re born with a character, which is your fate,
你的定数 你可以去反抗 但你反抗不了
your destiny, and you can struggle, but you can’t –
这是种希腊式的主题
It’s a Greek theme.
你觉得拉提根不再受欢迎的原因是什么
What do you think is the reason he fell out of favour?
说起拉提根不再受追捧
It wasn’t so much that Rattigan was out of favour
其实没那么严重 因为拉提根
with the British theatre as that
那时候已经完成了许多数优秀的作品
he’d written most of his best work.
在我看来 他最伟大的著作
In my opinion, he wrote most of his best work
是在皇家宫廷剧院的新派剧作家
by the time the Royal Court came along
出现之前就已经完成了的
and different kinds of writers appeared.
皇家宫廷剧院倾不喜欢那种
The Royal Court represented an attempt to put plays
主流的 有关中产阶级的戏剧
into the repertory which were not necessarily
而是有关小人物的
about mainstream, middle-class subjects,
事迹的戏剧
but about the rest of the population.
整个国家的风貌都在变化 人们爱看的戏剧也不同了
The country’s changing and the theatre’s changing with it,
这种变化 让拉提根感到很兴奋
and when it happens, it’s so… both invigorating to Rattigan,
而同时对拉提根来说也是一个威胁
and threatening to him at the same time.
拉提根的下一部作品 《主题之变》
Rattigan’s next play, Variation On A Theme,
受到了评论界的严厉批评
was slated by reviewers.
不管我写出什么样的作品都会挨批
Any play I wrote was going to get smashed.
我做任何事都没有希望
I had no chance with anything.
他们也不说 为什么不喜欢
They just didn’t say why they didn’t like it.
他们的理由是 这肯定很糟 因为它老套 没有活力
They just said that it must be bad because it is old, effete.
老式的戏剧风格
It is the old theatre.
拉提根自诩为戏剧的殉道者
Rattigan didn’t do himself any favours
这一做法并未给他的境遇带来改观
by painting himself as a martyr,
尽管如此 批评的言辞还是很激烈
but even so, the critics were ferocious,
批评他的人中的一个 本尼迪克特·南丁格尔
and one of those, Benedict Nightingale,
现在回想起来觉得当时的做法太过分了
now thinks that they went too far.
我看了《愤怒回首》
I saw Look Back In Anger,
深受影响
and I was very influenced by that.
看过《愤怒回首》之后 我穿上了我的羊皮皮鞋
I put on my blue suede shoes and drainpipe trousers,
还有紧身裤
saw Look Back In Anger,
那个时候的我 认为泰伦斯·拉提根代表着
and to me at that time, Terence Rattigan represented
全部反♥动♥的东西
everything that was reactionary,
因为他塑造了艾德娜阿姨这个人物
and because of the invention of Aunt Edna,
俗不可耐 现在我觉得自己错了
a bit Philistine, too. I feel I was wrong.
我只看到了表面的东西 很多人都是这样 真是太糟了
I saw only one side of him. I think awful lot of us did.
他把自己归类为反对时代思潮的人
He categorised himself as someone who was anti the zeitgeist
反对在当时最重要的
of the time, anti the social drama
一种戏剧类型
that was so important at the time.
# No money #
# Forget the money #
因为觉得自己被戏剧界所抛弃
Feeling rejected by the theatre world,
拉提根六十年代大部分时光都在国外度过
Rattigan spent much of the ’60s abroad,
住在百慕大 并且还在好莱坞待了一段时间
living in Bermuda and spending time in Hollywood.
在此期间 他为电视和电影写了许多
He wrote many successful screenplays
成功的剧本
for television and film,
如《重要人物》 以及《黄色香车》
including The VIPs and The Yellow Rolls Royce.
但我个人认为 这一时期
But for me, it was a period
拉提根作品的质量下滑了
where Rattigan’s quality of writing dropped.
有人溜须拍马 但文笔不再犀利
Softened by spongers and sycophants,
灵感也不再像往日一样了
and stagnating by retreating into this old world,
他大大地落后于时代了
he remained very out of keeping with the times.
南丁格尔的剧评
Nightingale’s reviews of the plays
通常都能得到拉提根本人的回信
would often get a reply from him.
他给我写了一些信
He wrote me quite a few letters,
但他那时候给所有人都写信
but he was writing everyone letters.
我觉得他每天都熬到很晚才睡
I think he stayed up very late at night.
我猜他喝很多酒 他很不开心
I think he drank quite a lot. I think he was deeply unhappy
感到被人疏离 觉得自己的人生很失败
and alienated, and felt an awful failure,
因为各种原因而厌恶自己
and hated himself for all sorts of reasons,
每天所能做的就是涂涂写写了
and what he could do was simply scrawl and write.
我是说 看 这里有他的手稿
I mean, here are some of the…frankly, scrawls,
有时候内容会有些不连贯
and they’re rather incoherent at times.
这是拉提根从他百慕大的家寄给你的明信片
This is a postcard Rattigan sent you from his home in Bermuda,
我想这个有年头了吧
so it must have been quite late on, I think.
1月24号♥ 没写年份
January the 24th, but not a year.
上面写道 亲爱的本尼迪克特·南丁格尔 我得
It says, “Dear Benedict Nightingale, I must seize a wobbly
歪歪倒倒地抓着抓着笔 感谢你的提醒
pen to thank you for a notice that has given me more
使我倍感愉悦和自信
pleasure and pride than any that I can remember.
恐怕我的失败真是我个人的过错
I’m afraid that it’s my own fault.”
二十二年前我♥草♥率地创作出的艾德娜阿姨
“I damned myself by that idiotic invention
这一愚蠢行为完全毁了我自己
in a hastily written preface 22 years ago of Aunt Edna.”
从没有人允许我去埋了这个老贱♥人♥
“I’ve never been allowed to bury the old bitch,
或者让我好好解释我创作她的目的何在
or even explain more seriously what I meant by her
就好像那些不懂得欣赏莎士比亚的人
it’s (something like Shakespeare’s groundlings,
没法儿让他们满意 不过不要紧
who have to be satisfied). It doesn’t matter.”
我不后悔 再次感谢你
“No regrets. Thank you again.”
泰伦斯·拉提根 敬呈
“Deeply, Terence Rattigan.”
承认失败的迹象逐渐显露
It’s a terribly moving admission of a failing.
拉提根的日子越来越难熬了
Things got very difficult for him.
但让他难受的是那些获准上演的剧目
But his desperation is what shows through.
实际上 这是我认为的令拉提根感到痛苦的事
That’s what I find distressing, actually.
我是说 承认失败让他身心俱疲
He was desperate for acknowledgment, I mean.
我觉得 比我所知道的其他任何一个剧作家都要痛苦
I think, much more than any other playwright I know.
他觉得 也许别人对他的评价是对的
He thought they were probably right about him.
他觉得自己很失败
He thought he was a failure,
哦 老天 他怎么会是失败的呢
and, my God, he was not a failure.
六十年代时 拉提根的身体状况不断恶化
Rattigan’s health deteriorated throughout the ’60s.
不清楚他到底得了什么病
It wasn’t clear what illness he had,
但他的酗酒的习惯对健康肯定是有害而无益
but it can’t have been helped by his heavy drinking.
1971年的时候 拉提根回到英国
But in 1971, Rattigan returned to England to receive
他在女王生日授勋名单上 他获封爵位
a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
他是一战以来第二个获此殊荣的
He was only the second playwright to receive such an honour
剧作家 之前获此荣誉的是诺埃尔·考沃德
since the First World War, the first being Noel Coward.
一年后 拉提根被诊断患有白血病
A year later, he was diagnosed with leukaemia.
他在创作他最后一个剧本《满城风雨》
He was dying when he wrote his final play,
的时候去世了
Cause Célèbre.
《满城风雨》是根据发生在1935年的一桩
Cause Célèbre was based on a real-life scandal
真实的丑闻改编的
that happened in 1935.
阿尔玛·拉腾伯里 一位退休的建筑师的妻子
Alma Rattenbury, the wife of a retired architect,
与他们家十八岁的司机发生婚外情
began an affair with their 18-year-old chauffeur.
出于嫉妒和愠怒 这个司机
The chauffeur, in a fit of jealousy and pique,
用木棒敲死了阿尔玛的丈夫
bludgeoned the husband to death with a mallet.
他们两个人都被指谋杀
Both were charged with his murder
双双在中♥央♥刑事法庭受审
and tried at the Old Bailey,
可以从当时报纸的标题看出
and you can see from newspaper articles at the time
这场审判引起了巨大的轰动
that the trial caused quite a sensation,
公众都叫嚣着要把这个淫♥妇♥抽筋拆骨
with the public crying out for this scarlet woman’s blood.
那个案子我记得很清楚
I remember the case well.
那时候我大概二十四岁
I was, er…what, 24?
我记得 就此事 我和我家人
And I remember having violent arguments
争论得很厉害
with my family about it.
当然咯 我父母自然是非常讨厌她
Of course, naturally both my mother and father hated her
这种令人唾弃的人的
as a symbol of everything that was dreadful,
而我当时正处于剧作家的萌芽期 我觉得她的案子很精彩
but I, as a budding dramatist, thought that she had a case.
《满城风雨》
格拉纳达电视台出品
哦 你跳得真好
Oh, very good!
(Fred Astaire弗雷德·阿斯泰尔 美国演员 舞蹈家)
一般般啦
Well, I’m not quite Fred Astaire.
(Ginger Rogers金格尔·罗杰斯 著名美国舞蹈家)
我跳得也马马虎虎
No, and I’m not Ginger Rogers.
哦 真想这样一直下去
Oh, I just want to go on and on like this.
真想一直这样直到地老天荒
I want to go on and on like this till the end of the world.
我请教了希亚·夏瑞克 伦敦老维克剧院最近
I asked Thea Sharrock, the director of the recent hit
热门的剧《满城风雨》的导演
production of Cause Célèbre at London’s Old Vic,
为什么在七十年代上演的戏剧 拉提根偏偏
why Rattigan chose Alma’s scandal in the ’30s
要挑阿尔玛这个三十年代的丑闻来当题材
for a play performed in the ’70s.
当时在传媒的渲染下 她已经成了一个怪物
She was turned into a monster by the media,
因为人们不敢相信 一个女人会像她