【文章】转一篇介绍Frankenstein的文章 - benedictcumberbatch吧

level 8

iceland_jewel 楼主

The Telegraph上的评论文章，我大概看了一下，是一篇介绍Frankenstein和roles swaps on stage的文章，有兴趣的亲们看看吧:)
转载：http://baker-street.org.uk/2011/01/frankenstein-and-his-creature-the-ultimate-theatre-swap/
原连接：http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/sarahcrompton/8259996/Which-Frankenstein-The-ultimate-theatre-swop.html
Which Frankenstein? The ultimate theatre swop
A new production, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, is to use one of theatres' best tricks, says Sarah Crompton.
It’s an exciting prospect: the Gothic horror story Frankenstein presented as a brand new play at the National Theatre, directed by Oscar-winning Danny Boyle and starring two of Britain’s best young actors.
But there’s a twist. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller are alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he creates – so the discriminating theatre-goer is faced with a tantalising choice. Who to choose to see as the scientist and who as the monster?
The decision to alternate the parts is, in fact, a stroke of genius. One of the most haunting passages in Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel (begun as part of a challenge on holiday with her husband Percy and his friend Lord Byron, when Mary was just 18) is when the creature, now a spurned and hunted murderer, first confronts the man who gave him life.
“All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.”
That passage explicitly ties the two men together – the man and his alter-ego, the father and his horribly deformed child. For the two actors – and their audiences – the chance to explore the emotions and ideas engendered by such indivisible characters is a meaty, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

2011年01月31日 00点01分 1

level 8

iceland_jewel 楼主

Such exchanging of roles, in fact, nearly always generates a buzz of excitement. Famously, in 1935, John Gielgud’s acclaimed production of Romeo and Juliet saw him swapping the parts of Romeo and Mercutio with his great rival Laurence Olivier. For a five-week run, Olivier played Romeo and Gielgud his foil; then they switched. “This astonishing demonstration of versatility and bravado brought forward a hail of superlatives”, according to an account at the time.
Gielgud’s Romeo, however, had slightly better reviews; an experience Olivier claimed turned him into a better actor.
A similar Shakespearean landmark came in 1973 when the director John Barton persuaded Ian Richardson and Richard Pasco – then two of the most lauded classical actors in Britain – to swap the parts of Richard II and his usurper Bolingbroke. “With two such fine actors, there was much enjoyment to be had at either performance,” wrote Richardson fan Shirley Jacobs, who booked to see the production over and over again.
Enthused by the buzz surrounding the production, one of my colleagues got a coach from Huddersfield to Stratford, and even now remembers it as one of the highlights of his theatre-going career. He saw Richardson as the king and Pasco as the rebel, but says: “Because you knew they were swapping the parts, it made you think about the relationship between the two men in a completely different way; you were always looking for similarities and differences.”
It made no difference to him that he did not see the performances the other way around. The same thing happened to me when I went to see Mark Rylance and the American actor Michael Rudko in Matthew Warchus’s revival of Sam Shepard’s True West at the Donmar Warehouse in 1994.

2011年01月31日 00点01分 2

level 8

iceland_jewel 楼主

The play consists of a visceral, not to say, violent encounter between two brothers: one, an uptight suburban screenwriter, the other a slovenly drifter. The actors alternated the roles – as Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C Reilly did on Broadway later. I saw Rylance as the wild outsider; knowing he was about to play the screenwriter the following night undoubtedly made me feel differently about the play.
But I did not feel deprived. The fact that I had witnessed one of the great actors of his day in a production that already had the whiff of the historic about it was enough.
Of course, if you have the time, money and energy, it is always blissful to see how a production changes when the tables are turned and parts swapped. As a ballet-goer, I am used to choosing the evening I attend on the basis of the cast scheduled to perform.
The text is, effectively, always the same, but I can choose which ballerina I want to see give me her Giselle, and the pleasure of seeing the same work over and over again is much enhanced by the subtle differences of interpretation each performer brings to the stage.
Effectively, people booking for Nick Dear’s Frankenstein at the National will be able to make the same kind of choice. The casting is advertised on the website, and so you can choose which actor you see play which part. Or you can book for both.
The truth is that, as with ballet, if the production itself is any good it really shouldn’t matter who plays which character. It helps that both Cumberbatch and Lee Miller are both such charismatic, interesting actors. The latter first found fame – and forged a relationship with director Boyle – as Sick Boy in Trainspotting; now he is starring in Dexter.

2011年01月31日 00点01分 3

level 8

iceland_jewel 楼主

Cumberbatch, on the other hand, is absolutely the actor of the moment, riding high both on the success of Sherlock on TV and After the Dance on stage.
With such high-calibre performers in the parts, each actor will bring his own qualities to his interpretation of the roles – but, if all goes to plan, audiences should be thrilled, engrossed and delighted by whoever they happen to see.

2011年01月31日 00点01分 4