Books and Arts; Book Review;Bulgakov and Stalin on stage；
文艺；书评；舞台上的布尔加科夫与斯大林；
Men and monsters；Two new plays explore the relationship between art and tyranny；
人与怪物；探讨艺术与极权统治之间关系的两部新剧;
Even without the constraints of censorship, Stalin's reign lends itself to surrealism. How else to convey its mad caprices, the incomprehensible scale of his cruelty and the spiralling paranoia? Two new London productions that, coincidentally, involve Stalin and the novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, make apt use of surreal fantasia. Catch either, or ideally both, if you can.

即便没有审查制度，斯大林的统治之下，艺术也会走向超现实主义。不然还有什么方式，可以表达其统治的反复无常，以及其人不可理解的残酷程度和日益增强的偏执呢？伦敦最近的两部新剧，恰好以超现实的幻想曲，让斯大林和小说家米哈?布尔加科夫走到了一起。两者中任一方面都值得玩味，如果你能，也可以兼顾双方。

The new version of “The Master and Margarita” by Complicite, a British company justly renowned for its daring theatre, is set to tour Europe after a short, triumphant run at the Barbican. The unwieldy zaniness of Bulgakov's great novel—whose action involves the devil and his retinue visiting Stalin's Moscow, the blighted affair of the eponymous characters, and the master's novel about Pontius Pilate and Jesus—somehow hasn't deterred stage adaptations. In this one, Simon McBurney, Complicite's director, doubles down: rather than trying to simplify, he mashes up the stories, echoing and embellishing them in multimedia. There are projections, sound loops, puppetry and nudity: a painfully emaciated Christ; a flying, nude Margarita.

以大胆的舞台著称的英国Complicite公司推出了新版《大师与玛格丽特》，在巴比肯的短暂上演大获成功，计划接下来去欧洲巡演。布尔加科夫这本伟大的小说带有一种不受支配的癫狂：魔鬼极其随从造访斯大林的莫斯科，同名人物的事迹以及大师所著关于比拉多和耶稣的故事。但这些都没有阻碍舞台剧本的改写。Complicite公司的总监Simon McBurney认为，不应当简化原著，而是把整个故事融为一体，并通过多媒体手段加以呼应和装饰。电脑投影，环绕音响，木偶人像和大胆裸露都得以应用。瘦骨嶙峋的耶稣痛苦地受难，还有赤身裸体悬在空中的玛格丽特。

The result is a dark carnival of theatrical effects, which is demanding, sometimes overwhelming, only occasionally misfiring. Like readers of the book, some members of the audience may yearn for more of the comic demons, in particular the giant, lecherous cat. But the overall impact highlights the novel's underlying themes: the hypocrisy of many but compassion of some; the way craven people get the callous rulers they deserve, yet now and then rise to a nobility that deserves better.

这一切的结果便是各种舞台特效在黑暗中的狂欢。全场气氛被跳动起来，有时甚至无法抵抗，只有某些时刻会显得过火。和原著的读者一样，现场的一些观众可能也会渴望看到更多动画制作的怪物，尤其是那只巨大的充满色情意味的猫。但总体效果还是突出了小说暗藏的主题：多数人的伪善和少数人的悲悯；懦弱的民众服从暴君是自食其果，虽然不时的那点高尚，似乎值得更好的统治。

“Collaborators”, a coruscating new play at the National Theatre, imagines a relationship between Stalin and Bulgakov himself. Directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner and written by John Hodge, previously best known as the screenwriter for “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting”, the production will soon transfer to the National's main Olivier stage after opening at the smaller Cottesloe. Bulgakov (Alex Jennings) is coerced to write a play about the dictator's early years to celebrate his 60th birthday. In return, along with his life and his wife's, he is promised the un-banning of his subversive drama about Molière—grotesque, masked scenes from which intrude on the main story, as do comically appalling passages from the Stalin tribute.

在国家剧院上演的《合作者们》也是一部引人注意的新剧，假想了斯大林与布尔加科夫之间的故事。导演是Nicholas Hytner，编剧是John Hodge，之前凭借《浅坟》和《猜火车》为人所知。这部新剧在Cottesloe开演之后，很快会转至更大的国家奥利弗主剧院演出。剧中布尔加科夫（Alex Jennings饰）被迫写一部关于独裁者早年经历的剧本，以庆祝他的60岁诞辰。回报就是他得到允诺，他关于莫里哀的反动剧作不会被禁演。于是这个剧作中的奇怪晦涩的场景会不时插入到为斯大林献礼的剧作中，传达出既滑稽又恐怖的信息。

That, in the event, is written by Stalin, who summons Bulgakov to secret meetings. The actual Bulgakov did write a never-performed play about Stalin's youth; Stalin telephoned and took an interest in him, though there is no record that they met. Simon Russell Beale (pictured above) is a chillingly hilarious Stalin; substituting a West Country burr for the original Georgian accent, he is cunning and charming, manipulative, menacing and intellectually insecure. While Stalin hammers out the script, Bulgakov, struggling with his compromises and conscience, is obliged do his collaborator's paperwork, which slides from steel-factory targets, to grain allocations, to death quotas.

这一段在剧中，是由斯大林所写，他召见布尔加科夫密见。现实中布尔加科夫的确写过一部关于斯大林青年时期经历的剧本，但从未被搬上舞台。斯大林和他通过电话并表示过赞赏，但并没有他们会面的记录。Simon Russell Beale（如图）扮演了一个冷酷却又惹人发笑的斯大林，用西方粗喉音代替了他原来的乔治亚时期的口音。他世故圆滑，富于魅力，控制欲强，具有威慑力同时又反复无常。在剧中，当斯大林敲定剧本台词时，布尔加科夫在妥协和良知之间摇摆挣扎，但不得不完成这一合作的剧本，内容涉及炼钢厂目标，谷物分配，甚至死刑名额。

Both productions explore the relationship between tyranny and creativity: the artistic kind, but also the humbler urge to create private love and lives in crushing times. “The Master and Margarita” proclaims that “manuscripts don't burn”. “Collaborators” is less sure of art's resilience: “the monster always wins”, Stalin insists. “Collaborators” hints at the structural similarities between writing and governing. Both are lonely work, requiring the imposition of an arbitrary order on unseen, notional individuals—only, in the case of the tyrant, the people are real.

两部新剧都探讨了集权统治和艺术创造之间的关系：在集权压制的时代，关于个人情爱和生活的艺术创作的动力极其微弱。《大师与玛格丽特》宣称“手稿不可被真正焚毁”。《合作者们》则并未如此确定艺术的自我恢复能力，毕竟“怪物们总是胜利”，这是剧中斯大林坚持的台词。这两部作品都算是脱离现实，涉及到对那些未见的个体施加强制命令，只有在暴君统治之下，居中的人民才活在真实当中。