美国国家公共电台 NPR '1984' Comes To Broadway And 'It's Not An Easy Evening'

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Since the presidential election, George Orwell's "1984" has become a bestseller again. The dystopian novel in which the main character works at the Ministry¹ of Truth creating fake news for a totalitarian regime has been adapted for the stage. And it's opening on Broadway next week. Jeff Lunden reports.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE²: All of the ideas are in the play. Ignorance is strength. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Big Brother is watching. After a recent performance, I spoke³ with a pair of doctors from Great Neck, N.Y., Alvin and Dorit Friedman. They said they were struck by how contemporary the 1949 story feels.

DORIT FRIEDMAN: Big brother is watching us. That's for sure (laughter).

ALVIN FRIEDMAN: The most quoted phrase ever - big brother is watching.

FRIEDMAN: Right. Little did we know that that was going to be reality.

LUNDEN: Facebook and Amazon know what you like. George Orwell wrote his novel in reaction to the fascism and totalitarianism that had engulfed⁴ the globe during and after the Second World War. The novel has always been a steady seller, says Bruce Nichols, the book's current publisher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

BRUCE NICHOLS: "1984" holds up because Orwell's political incisiveness⁵. When he talks about newspeak, it applies to all kinds of spin which we see every day. And it seems to only ever get worse.

LUNDEN: "1984" shot to number one on Amazon shortly after the inauguration⁶ with this exchange on "Meet The Press."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")

KELLYANNE CONWAY: You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains⁷...

CHUCK TODD: Wait a minute, alternative facts?

DUNCAN MACMILLAN: When Winston Smith stands up in front of us and says there are truths, and there are facts. Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 plus 2 equals 4 because it does. That means something in this context.

LUNDEN: Duncan Macmillan co-authored an co-directs the adaptation now on Broadway.

MACMILLAN: It's quite something to bring it to New York now in this political climate.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Syme) You don't have to be an expert to know that newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year. It's a beautiful thing - the destruction of words.

LUNDEN: The audience reaction changes nightly depending on the current news cycle, says Duncan Macmillan. We spoke the day after President Trump⁸ announced the U.S. withdrawal⁹ from the Paris Climate Accords.

MACMILLAN: Last night was like a sort of volatile¹⁰ town hall meeting. People were shouting out resist. People were arguing with characters and applauding certain sentiments. And it wasn't just, you know, a liberal audience. It was little pockets around the room sort of debating with each other. And that felt really live and exciting.

LUNDEN: The actors feel it, too. Tom Sturridge plays Winston Smith, the protagonist¹¹.

TOM STURRIDGE: We're all in this room together. We're all experiencing this together. And we influence each other. The way you listen, the way you react, shout out in this play, which is extraordinary, has - makes you enormously complicit in the evening that we have together.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY)

STURRIDGE: (As Winston Smith) I change the truth. I falsify articles I write lies. I - I - delete things - records, photographs, people like your grandfather.

OLIVIA WILDE: (As Julia) You delete?

STURRIDGE: (As Winston Smith) Yes. I push a button, and they never existed at all.

LUNDEN: Winston's lover Julia is played by Olivia Wilde. People have a tendency to forget there's a love story at the center of "1984." She says the stage adaptation messes with the audience's heads as does the book. Winston Smith is willing to do anything to bring down the government for which he works, even when pressed by the duplicitous character O'Brien.

WILDE: While we're on stage, we can feel the audience slowly falling into line behind Winston. They embrace him as their hero. They root for him. And then he has the line - well, O'Brien says, if it would help the party, would you throw acid in a small child's face? And we can hear this gasp¹² from the audience. And he says, yes. And suddenly, we question - hang on a minute. Am I Winston? I thought I was Winston. Am I willing to go that far? I don't think I am.

LUNDEN: The adaptation forthrightly¹³ deals with the novel's concepts - who controls information and language to assert power, living in perpetual present, the concept of doublethink, keeping two opposing thoughts in one's mind while genuinely believing both. But it's the visceral nature of the production with graphic¹⁴ images of torture which has made some audience members walk out. Co-adapter Duncan Macmillan.

MACMILLAN: It's not an easy evening. I should warn people. It doesn't give you any conclusions, actually. And it leaves you with something, I hope, if it works properly, to resolve in yourself and with each other and to try and work out what the hell it is you've just been exposed to as it is with the novel.

LUNDEN: Amanda Bias¹⁵, a high school teacher from New Jersey¹⁶ who came with a group of coworkers, teaches the book to her seniors.

AMANDA BIAS: I don't think kids necessarily know what they're always getting as a source in the information they're getting. We have to teach them what's right and what's wrong and, at least, what's credible¹⁷. I think that's a pretty good message.

LUNDEN: Especially, she says, in the world we live in now, where 2 plus 2 can sometimes equal 5. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 engulfed   

v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was engulfed by a crowd of reporters. 他被一群记者团团围住。
• The little boat was engulfed by the waves. 小船被波浪吞没了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 incisiveness   

n.敏锐，深刻

参考例句：

• He never quarreled with the directness and incisiveness of Cowperwood's action. 他对柯帕乌举动的直截了当，锋利无比，从不表示异议。 来自辞典例句
• A few candidates stood out for the incisiveness of their arguments. 几个候选人因他们犀利的观点出众。 来自互联网

6 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

10 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

11 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

12 gasp   

n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说

参考例句：

• She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。
• The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。

13 forthrightly   

ad.言行坦诚地，直率地

参考例句：

• Didn't prevaricate but answered forthrightly and honestly. 毫不欺骗而是坦言相告。
• However in the economic production function that how knowledge contains a level forthrightly? 然而知识如何直接地包含到标准的经济生产函数中？

14 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

15 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

16 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

17 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？