1. 點爍星火

前進進工作坊將於十二月推出牛棚冬季演出，介紹歐洲當紅的英國前衛劇作家Sarah Kane的作品《Crave》和《4.48 Psychosis》。（編按：此處指2006年12月於前進進牛棚劇場上演的《渴求》和《4.48 精神異常》）機緣巧合，讀起了她的劇本集和有關她的書本，發現她短暫但燦爛的一生傳奇非常，所以推出閱讀筆記跟大家分享。

Sarah Kane，英國劇作家。她23歲時編寫出第一個劇本《Blasted》。正如其名，它的出現預視了一位尤如星火足可燒毀整片森林的劇作家的面世。

《Blasted》 是Sarah Kane 93年在University of Birmingham攻讀戲劇碩士（戲劇寫作）時的作品，此劇在校上演時便受到她之後的代理人Mel Kenyon注意，然後介紹到Royal Court Theatre，95年正式上演，首演時，受到劇評的猛烈批評：

‘this disgusting feast of filth’ ——Daily Mail
‘gratuitous welter of carnage’ ——Sunday Telegraph
‘a sordid little travesty of a play’ ——The Spectator

《Blasted》引起這樣爆炸性的反應，全因劇情裡面充滿暴力、強姦、死亡、戰爭等等令人難以接受的內容。故事開首時講述一對男女到酒店開房，男向女要求造愛不遂，然後將她強姦；突然酒店房間被炮彈炸中，一名士兵闖入，將男人強姦，並將他的雙眼挖出，然後開槍自殺。女人帶著戰爭的棄嬰回來，嬰兒死掉，女人將嬰兒埋葬。男人因極度饑餓將嬰屍吃掉。最後女人帶著食物回來，給這個男人。

除了內容，此劇的形式也令人難以接受。Sarah Kane形容此劇混合了三種劇本風格，開首是受易卜生影響的心理寫實劇，中部是布萊希特式的表現主義，而最後部份是貝克特式的荒誕主義。

‘I don't think it's accidental that in Blasted she took a three act structure and literally blew it apart. There is a bomb -- it blows apart and we move from socio-realism to surrealism, to expressionism. So I think that was indicative of what she was trying to do. She found existing forms quite constraining or restraining because those big structures offer a kind of security and comfort which I think she felt was dishonest.’

——Mel Kenyon

Sarah Kane對批評她的劇本風格不統一也有這樣的反擊：

‘If they don't have a clear framework in which to locate the play then they can't talk about it...’

《Blasted》的內容和形式都令人產生一種強烈的不安和混亂感覺，這都是劇作家不受拘朿，敢作敢為，離經叛道的大膽表現，為的是要讓我們有種全新的方法去認識這個現實世界。

2. 真實的世界

Edward Bond （英國劇作家）認為戲劇家有兩類，第一類是與現實玩劇場遊戲（play theatrical games with reality）；另一類是可以改變現實（change reality）。而最重要的是改變人類對現實世界的觀點、理解。

‘Blasted changed reality because it changed the means we have of understanding ourselves. It showed us a new way in which to see reality, and when we do that reality is changed.’

——Edward Bond

《Blasted》裡面片段式的跳躍風格，由尼斯（Leeds）的高貴酒店房間，突然轉到戰爭現場；由情侶關係的實況劇，突然變成充滿暴力和血腥的荒誕劇。這種突轉，與Sarah Kane編寫此劇時的世界狀況不無關係。當她編寫此劇時，正值東歐變天，共產主義政權一個個相繼倒下來，90年代初，南斯拉夫政權被推翻，分裂出來的波斯尼亞又發生內戰及殘酷的種族清洗。

‘I think with Blasted that it was a direct response to material as it began to happen...I knew that I wanted to write a play about a man and a woman in a hotel room, and that there was a complete power imbalance which resulted in a rape. I'd been doing it for a few days and I switched on the news one night while I was having a break from writing, and there was a very old woman's face in Srebrenica just weeping and looking into the camera and saying -- 'please, please, somebody help us, because we need the UN to come here and help us'. I thought this is absolutely terrible and I'm writing this ridiculous play about two people in a room. What's the point carrying on?’

——Sarah Kane

然而，她仍然深信戲的上下半部的緊密關連：「全面戰爭的種子其實早已種植在看似和平的文明生活裡。」我們活著的生活看似文明和平，其實裡面隱藏了幾多嚴重的世界性問題呢？核武競賽、貧富懸殊、資源分配不均、天災饑荒、貿易不平等、種族衝突......每日因為這些全球問題而喪生的人數又有幾多呢？我們又會否知道，會否真正關心呢？

顯然，這位年輕的劇作家對劇場裡的真實的要求，不再是那舊一套的現實主義（socio-realism）能滿足的了。因為她的勇氣，她的率性，劇場裡的真實與現實世界的真實緊密地連繫在一起了。難怪當她將《Blasted》這劇本交給首演的導演James MacDonald時，她說：「不要在深夜讀它，因為你會睡不著覺。」

她既然能將她的作品打開面向了世界，我們本土的劇作家又應怎樣面對我們現在身處的現況呢？我們又有勇氣作出真正的回應嗎？

3. 形式的鑄造

「形式的創造和意蘊的開掘是同步的，兩者都取決於對主客觀世界發現的深度。」
——余秋雨

《Blasted》的文本除了內容令人難以接受外，風格上的不統一亦令人如坐針氈。已建立好的人物關係、情景、氣氛，都隨時會被意想不到的事件打亂；觀眾的心理趨勢就好像受驚的小鳥永遠找不到安穩的落腳點。形式混亂不堪、令人無所適從，可能是大部份觀眾的反應。

‘When I attempted to do and I think I probably succeeded, was to create a form for which I couldn't think of an obvious direct precedent, so it wasn't possible to say this form is like a play written twenty years ago.’

劇本中最能吸引普遍觀眾的，所謂的「戲軌」，就被劇作家自己所安放的計時炸彈炸得支離破碎。

‘I think that what happens in war is that suddenly, violently, without any warning whatsoever, people's lives are completely ripped to pieces. So I literally just picked a moment in the play, I thought I'll plant a bomb and blow the whole fucking thing up.’

形式和意蘊其實是不可分割的雙生兒，只有空泛的形式而沒有深刻的意蘊也只是在賣弄虛假。Sarah Kane在探尋新穎的表達形式時，也絕不會離開主題意蘊上的關聯。非常明顯，上半場男子對女子的性暴力就跟下半場士兵對待男子絕無兩樣，亦同時對照了在房間以外正在進行的戰爭。

‘The form and content attempt to be one- the form is the meaning. The tension of the first half play, this is appalling social, psychological and sexual tension, is almost a premonition of the disaster to come. And when it does come, the structure fractures to allow it entry...The form is a direct parallel to the truth of the war it portrays - a traditional form is suddenly and violently disrupted by the entrance of unexpected element that drags the characters and the play into a chaotic pit without logical explanation... The unity of place suggests a paper-thin wall between the safety and civilization of peacetime Britain and the chaotic violence of civil war. A wall that can be torn down at any time, without warning...

‘War is confused and illogical, therefore it is wrong to use a form that is predictable. Acts of violence simply happen in life, they don't have a dramatic build-up and they are horrible.’

——Sarah Kane

生活的無常，人性的反常俯拾皆是，但將這些事情放進劇本，搬上舞台卻往往被人嗤之以鼻，被評為不合常理，究竟我們是沒有勇氣面對現實，還是只將劇場當成是逃避現實的安樂窩呢？

4. 舞台意象

《Blasted》內，Ian將Cate強暴，然後被後來闖入的Soldier強暴，而Soldier的女友過去亦被人強暴致死，最後 Cate為了在戰爭中取得食物，又要再次被人強暴……重複發生的強暴使這個意象變得具層次和肌理，強暴事件並不再單一或偶然，重疊的舞台意象令劇作者對當其時發生在波斯尼亞集中營，對婦女集體強暴的事件提出有力的對照和控訴。

‘I was working on this with some actors and someone said “there's nothing kind of unusual about the fact that there's rape camps in Bosnia, or people are raped during war. That's what war is.” Certainly the Vietcong it seems didn't rape. They just didn't. And when Western women were captured by the Vietcong and they were finally rescued, and people said, “Oh God, what happened? Were you raped?”...’

Soldier的功用明顯將戲劇處境（dramatic context）由現實的境況帶到象徵和譬喻的層次，可惜初次接觸此劇的劇評都未能看穿神髓，將重複強暴的意象貶評為‘disgusting, dirty, feast of filth...’

‘I think critics have problems discussing theatrical imagery anyway. And we've been reduced to this fear of the word so much. What's the point of writing a play that doesn't have an image structure, but the image structure seemed to be completely ignored and it takes away the meaning. And they just take the meaning from the words...You have to look at the context of the image.’

另一個極具爭議的意象便是Ian最後將嬰屍吃掉。那段舞台指示是這樣的：

Ian tears the cross out of the ground, rips up the board and lifts the baby's body out.
He eats the baby.

原來Kane開始時也曾猶豫，怎樣將這段文字化成行動在觀眾面前演出。

‘A lot of people said to me when they read it before it was performed “we're not sure about the baby eating”, and I kept looking and thinking “is it gratuitous? What does gratuitous mean anyway? And does it become unbelivable?”...I find the opposite. Reading Blasted is much harder work than watching it, because when you read it , it's literally he eats the baby. When you see it he's clearly not eating the baby. It's absolutely fucking obvious. This is a theatrical image. He's not doing it at all. So in a way it's more demanding because it throws you back on your own imagination. But somehow, I don't know - it's more realistic when you read the scene because you get simply the act.’

——Sarah Kane

這點討論，帶出了非常有意思的探討，就是有關文字與意象、真實（reality）與舞台的真實（theatrical truthfulness）的緊密關係。

James MacDonald（《Blasted》和《Cleansed》首演的導演）也表示，在Sarah Kane的劇本中，非常著重利用舞台意象去說故事，比利用文字更甚。

‘In both plays she was very concerned to tell a story through images, but Cleansed confirmed for me that the images are there to tell the story more powerfully and immediately than the text.’

當他們第一天圍讀《Cleansed》時，大約半小時便可將整個劇本讀完，但最後的演出長約一小時三十分鐘，所以裡面其實包含了一小時的意象。

‘Her work always seeks to engage an audience emotionally by the most direct route possible.’

——James MacDonald

5. 文字的提煉

因為相信舞台的意象遠勝於語言，95年演出的《Blasted》的版本已是第三個改寫本。相比之下，每一版本的用字都來得更簡煉有力。

如Cate為了在戰爭中的混亂環境裡找到食物，她不惜犧牲自己的身體。

CATE.
    Did it in the back of a van.
    He smelt of cigarettes and sweat.
    What he did -
    What he did with his wife he said.
    Did it quickly. Made me bleed.
    Gave me a sausage, some bread and this.
    (She pours gin in Ian's mouth)
    Want to go home now.

這段交待Cate怎樣拿到食物的台詞在95年演出的版本中被抽起了，換來的只是一句舞台指示：‘There is blood seeping from between her legs’

‘If I was going to re-write it I'd try purifying images even more, and I'd cut even more words out if such a thing is possible, because for me the language of theatre is image.’

——Sarah Kane

另外，當Ian經歷了無論是肉體上及精神上最大最極端的痛苦後，Kane亦都只是利用了一連串的無對白的意象，去交待當他走到幾乎是生命的盡頭時，重新尋回失去了的人性。

    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN masturbating
IAN cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt cunt
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN strangling himself.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN shitting.
    and then trying to clean it up with newspaper.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN laughing hysterically.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN having a nightmare.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN crying huge bloody tears.
    He is hugging the SOLDIER's body comfort.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN lying very still, weak with hunger.
    Darkness.
    Light.
IAN tears the cross out of the ground, rips up the boards and lifts the baby's body.
    He eats the baby.
    He puts the sheet the baby was wrapped in back in the hole.A beat, then he climbs in after it and lies down, head poking out of the floor.

——《Blasted》

原來為了令Ian在臨死前經歷一次最徹底的苦痛，她刻意將他放在人性最低層次，然後進行那些人類最原始的行為——進食、睡覺、排便、性發洩等，然後讓觀眾認真審視這些行為的厭惡性。

‘...for me, it got to the point where I didn't know what words to use anymore, and it was a complete breakdown of language. I thought I'm going to have to do this purely through image, which I'm happier doing anyway.’

——Sarah Kane

當然這些意象除了帶來觀眾的視覺震撼外，亦是導演和設計人員需要面對的難題。

尤其到了她的第三個作品《Cleansed》，Kane所要求的舞台效果可以說是已達出神入化的地步。

...CARL sticks out his tonge.
TINKER produces a large pair of scissors and cuts off CARL's tongue.
CARL waves his arms, his mouth open, full of blood, no sound emerging.
...He takes CARL by the arms and cuts off his hands.
CARL tries to pick up his hands -- he can't, he has no hands.
The rat begins to eat CARL's right hand.
...The gunfire goes on and on and on.
The wall is pitted with bullet marks, and as the gunfire continues,
huge chunks of plastic and brick are blown from the wall.
The wall is being shot to pieces and is splattered with blood.

還有實在太多太多的例子，不勝枚舉。

Kane除了測試觀眾忍受能力的極限外，還對劇場工作者給予極大的挑戰。

6. 探索的起飛

《Crave》和《4.48 Psychosis》是Kane的最後兩個作品，亦是她的代表作。重要性在於從這兩個作品的形式都更徹底地擺脫了舊有的模式，顯示了她對劇場的寫作進行了更進一步的深刻探索，甚具開發性的力量。

這兩個作品裡面將劇本必定會包含的「時、地、人」、戲劇情境、衝突等通通除去，留下低的只有角色的代號、沒有意義的說話、甚至於《4.48 Psychosis》中，更可以找到一堆堆排列得顛三倒四的數目字。

為了將先前《Blasted》對劇評留下的印象抹掉，避免他們用先入為主的概念去評論新作，影響獨立性，Kane發表《Crave》時用了偽名：Marie Kelvedon。

‘She had spent a lot of time shaking off the negative effects of Blasted. She really wanted to write something that could be judged for what it was, rather than for the fact that it had been written by Sarah Kane.’

——Vicky Featherstone (director of Crave)

在創作《Crave》的過程中，她受資助去到美國紐約參加工作坊，期間她除了得到紐約如萬花筒般的文化撞擊外，還啟發了她對文字在劇場中的音樂性的探索。

‘The experience of living and working in America had a profound effect...it did change my writing because I was losing my cultural articulacy. The number of words I was using was getting smaller and smaller, and my writing became stranger and stranger.

‘...I want to find out how good a poet I could be while writing something dramatic...deliberately an experiment with form, and language and rhythm and music.

‘...Normally when I am writing, I know what the intention and the meaning of the line is. With Crave I knew what the rhythm was, but I did not know what I was going to say. There are a couple of times I used musical notation, only the rhythm without actual words.’

——Sarah Kane

下面一段來自《Crave》的台詞，你又會找到當中的音樂嗎？

M     Why?
C     What?
B     Why what?
C     What?
M     Why are you crying?
A     There's no news here.
B     You were so persistent.
C     It's always me.
M     You always knew this.
B     It's out of control.
C     How did I lose you?
A     You threw me away.
C     No.
M     Yes.
B     No.
A     Yes.
B     No.
C     No.
A     Yes.
    A beat.
B     No.
C     No.
M     Yes.
B     No.
C     No.
A     Yes.
C     No.
    A beat.
A     Yes.
C     No.
B     No.
M     Yes.
A     Yes.
M     Yes.

7. 拼湊的詩體語言

20世紀著名詩人T.S. Eliot相信表達詩歌（Poetry）最理想的媒介就是劇場。

‘The ideal medium for poetry, to my mind...is the theatre’
‘the more musically sensitive with the rhythm, while for the auditors of greater sensitiveness and understanding a meaning will reveal itself gradually.’

——T.S. Eliot

原來在Kane創作 《Crave》 時，無論在形式和內容上都深受T.S. Eliot作品The Waste Land（1922）的影響。這篇詩歌大部份用了說話的方式（speaking voices）來寫，而內容上也直接引用了二十世紀，非常能夠代表當其時意識形態的文字，例如其他文學或宗教的語錄，甚至乎流行曲。

這種引用的形式也被Kane採用了，所以在《Crave》裡面，不難找到大量來自其他現代詩人如Hermann Hesse、Camus、Aleister Crowley、Prozac Nation、David Edgar，編劇如Shakespeare、Chekov、甚至聖經及佛經的素材。當然The Waste Land裡有幾句令人印象深刻的說話也被直接引用了：‘Hurry up please its time’、‘Give, sympathise, control’。

‘Sarah had lots of quotations and references in the play...but you have to forget those and turn them into a piece of work...So the references and quotations add layers and a texture to the play that is extraordinary and thrilling.’

——Ingrid Craigie (actress played M in Crave)

拼湊的結構令人聯想起都是風潮於二十世紀的普普藝術。

將純粹的形式和結構打破，滲入各類型媒體，產生多元指向性的後現代藝術特徵似乎深深影響著這位二十世紀末的劇作家。

8. 演繹的開放性

劇評對《Crave》的演出評價甚高，稱此劇為她最成功的作品‘by far her most achieved work’之前對她滿懷敵意的劇評也稱她‘born again’和‘a commanding talent’。他們認為她能夠從一貫的暴力題材中突破自己，尋找出新的風格和形式。

除此之外，此劇還有另一特性非常值得注意的，就是Kane將此作品的演繹作完全的開放。

首先，她明顯不想重蹈T.S. Eliot寫The Waste Land的覆轍，劇本不留一點註解。T.S. Eliot當時為了使讀者完全明白詩的內容，他寫了相當分量的註解，結果「妹仔大過主人婆」，讀者對這些註解的興趣還大過作品本身。而且Kane相信，要將劇本裡面所有的點子解釋，必須寫一份比劇本還要長的註解，這是相當荒謬的，所以她採取了相反的做法。

‘So I thought it's a very simple choice -- either I explain everything, which means going into enormous detail about my own life, which I didn't really want to do, or I explain nothing.

‘...I didn't want to write those things down because then I thought they'd get fixed in those things forever and nothing would ever change.’

結果，此劇引發了相當數目的不同演繹的方法。

‘In some ways for me Crave has very fixed and specific meanings in my mind which no one else could ever possibly know unless I told them. For example, who knows what 199714424（其中一句台詞）means? I'm the only person who knows and the actors -- and I have no intention of telling anyone what it means. So I can't ever possibly expect to see the same production of the play twice thank God.’

——Sarah Kane

難怪，Kane表示《Crave》是她最喜愛的作品，並觀賞此劇的演出不下四十次。

《Crave》的演出一般都是用兩男兩女的演員組合，而且台詞也有相當的性別提示，例如某角色提到自己的經期來臨，及某角色很想生小孩等，但今次前進進工作坊所推出的《渴求》採用了全女性演員，貫徹了Kane對此劇所持的開放態度。實在令人期待。

9. 死亡筆記

Sarah Kane寫完《4.48 Psychosis》一個多星期後，便在倫敦King's College Hospital的洗手間內用鞋帶上吊，自殺身亡。遺下了《4.48 Psychosis》這個主題與自殺有非常密切關係的作品。

死後一年零四個月，《4.48 Psychosis》便於二千年六月十三日在Royal Court Theatre Upstairs正式首演。安排首演時，劇院明顯想將劇作者已自殺離世的事實低調處理，用了全黑，沒有相片的海報，而上面也只引用了全劇最有幽默感的台詞：‘I dreamt I went to the doctor's and she gave me eight minutes to live - I'd been sitting in the fucking waiting room half an hour.’

但Sarah Kane了斷自己生命的決定無可避免地影響了首演時觀眾的情緒，及劇評對此劇的觀點。

‘That was certainly true for the first run of 4.48 Psychosis, around which there was a considerable level of tension because everyone in the audience knew that the writer had killed herself. And press nights too there was obviously tension. Her work was admittedly hard to review because the plays demand that you experience them emotionally in the moment rather than intellectually.’

——James MacDonald (director of 4.48 Psychosis)

縱使這個戲的內容就是自殺者的心聲論述，但如果對此劇的理解只局限於無邊痛苦的彌留前的呻吟，就未免浪費了劇作者對開發更深刻的戲劇語言的一番心血。

‘It was strange -- when I finished Crave I thought I don't know where to go now, because it seemed to me, this has become so minimal and so much about language -- where could my writing possibly go? But when I started this new one (4.48 Psychosis) just a few weeks ago, I suddenly realised that it goes further. I mean the new one at the moment doesn't even have characters, all there is are language and images. But all the images are within language rather than visualised. I don't even know how many people there are...

‘4.48 Psychosis is about a psychotic breakdown and what happens to a person's mind when the barriers which distinguish between reality and different forms of imagination completely disappear, so that you no longer know the difference between your waking life and your dream life. And also you no longer know where you stop, and the world starts.’

——Sarah Kane

她利用了更新的戲劇語言及形式，去嘗試表達一些非常抽象的概念，如不同狀態的真實，並探索存在於現實、幻想和不同精神狀態之間的分界線。所以，她將文本分成多個分支的論述，整個劇本就由獨白、醫生與病人間的對話、醫學問卷、病人的臨床紀錄，甚至流行的心理健康自救手冊的內容所組成，更有一些散亂和夾雜在劇本中間，演員不須說出，只供製造意象的數字和文字。

所以，她為我們所開發的新的戲劇文本形式，絕對比起我們用好奇的眼光去窺秘她自殺前內心的痛苦更為重要。

‘It is very narrow and trivial to look at a play simply as an expression of someone's biography - it limits interpretation and closes off other possible meanings. Her work is much richer than just an expression of personal anguish.’

——Simon Kane (brother of Sarah Kane)

10. 綑綁在火刑柱上盡情燃燒

其中一位影響Sarah Kane甚深的戲劇家，殘酷劇場（Theatre of Cruelty）的倡導者阿圖（Antonin Artaud）相信劇場向觀眾所傳達的，相當於殉道者為了信仰而被綑綁在火刑柱上活活燒死的姿態。

《Cleansed》和《Crave》的德文譯者Nils Tabert也深有同感：

‘Sarah's play can't be limited to this but they are desperately making signs to society -- not cries for help, but saying 'this is what the world is like from my point of view'. And it makes you very uncomfortable towards the world...And I think that was one of the things Sarah was working for -- that we have to get back in touch with our feelings -- even if this is very risky.’

——Nils Tabert

明顯地，Sarah Kane除了透過她的作品向觀眾表達她個人的世界觀，更重要的也能令觀眾對這個身處的世界有嶄新的看法。當然，除了運用大量的暴力、性、死亡、痛苦、孤寂 和精神崩潰的元素使觀眾麻木的心智重新甦醒，她還想帶給我們適用於二十世紀的樂觀主義和希望。如《Blasted》最後的一句台詞是Ian得到Cate的照顧得到了丁點食物後所說的多謝；《Cleansed》最後'It stops raining. The sun comes out'；Crave最後的台詞 'Happy So happy Happy and free'；《4.48 Psychosis》最後 'please open the curtains'。

‘I don't find my plays depressing or lacking in hope. To create something beautiful about despair, or out of a feeling of despair, is for me the most hopeful, life-affirming thing a person can do.’

——Sarah Kane

由始至終，她最關心的主題還是人類的愛（love）和感情（affection）。

只要我們在她的作品中找到人性的點滴美善，然後看到現實中黑暗背後的光明，她將自己綑綁在火刑柱上的殉道都不會是白費的了。

參考書本：

‘Love me or kill me’ Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes, Graham Saunders, Manchester University Press 2002.

Completed plays: Blasted, Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, Skin, with an introduction by David Greig, London: Methuen, 2001.