《四川好人》简介
题目：The Good Person of Szechwan|Introduction
来源：eNote.com
《四川好人》是布莱希特的代表作之一，因为剧中包含的永恒主题而广为流传、搬演。许多评论认为这是布氏“史诗剧”的最好范例，因为此剧对观众提出了挑战。虽然，此剧的创意早在1920年代晚期就有了，但为躲避二战烽烟，布莱希特直到1939-43在欧洲、美国流亡时，才基本完稿。布莱希特在1941年曾想将《四川好人》搬上美国舞台，但直到1943年2月4日才在瑞士的苏黎世首演。此剧在1940年代的欧洲各地上演。一般认为此剧的第一个英语演出版本是1948年，明尼苏达州的Cleveland’s Eldred Theater或Hamline University。美国高校在此后多次搬演此剧。《四川好人》在纽约的专业演出迟至1956年底，在布莱希特去世后不久。
至今此剧仍在全球被反复搬上舞台，部分因为此剧似乎是一则有关人类母题的寓言：如何在一个不完善的、唯利是图的、阶级分明的社会中做一个好人。因为这种关注，此举似乎并不倾向于反映真实的社会、文化或政治生活，尽管剧本借鉴了一定中国戏剧的元素并设定在中国。布莱希特原来将此剧设定在柏林，有些当代的演出将剧本加以改编，以反映演出所在的时代和地域特征。正如John Fuegi在《布莱希特精华》一书中所写到的：“为什么这世上恶行被默许，甚至被鼓励？——这样一个深刻的形而上的问题从未被如此有力地提出过。”
附原文：
Bertolt Brecht’s parable The Good Person of Szechwan is one of the playwright’s major plays, popular and regularly produced because of its universal themes. Many critics believe the play is one of the best examples of Brecht’s epic theater because it challenges the audience. Although Brecht worked on the idea behind the play as early as the late 1920s, it was primarily written from 1939-43 in various European countries and the United States while in exile from his native Germany during World War II. Brecht tried to get Good Person produced in the United States in 1941, but the play did not make its debut until February 4, 1943, at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, in Zurich, Switzerland. The play was produced throughout Europe in the 1940s. The first English-language production of The Good Person of Szechwan in the United States took place in either Cleveland’s Eldred Theater or Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1948. Many American colleges and universities put on the play after this date. The Good Person of Szechwan was first produced professionally in New York City in late 1956, shortly after Brecht’s death.
The play has continued to be performed throughout the world to the present day, in part because it seems to be a modern parable about a basic human issue: how to be a good person in an imperfect, money-centered, class-divided society. Because of this focus, the play does not seem to be intended to be a reflection of the actual social, cultural and political life in China at that time, although the play uses some conventions of Chinese theater and is set in China. Brecht’s original setting for the play was Berlin, and some recent productions have adapted the story to reflect the time and location of production. As John Fuegi wrote in The Essential Brecht, ‘‘The profound metaphysical question of why evil is permitted, indeed encouraged, in the world has seldom been asked with such force.’’ Trackback: http://tb.donews.net/TrackBack.aspx?PostId=256712