美国国家公共电台 NPR On Broadway, 'Network' Goes From Satire To Tragedy

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

One of the hottest tickets on Broadway this season - at least until they produce a musical about BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music - is "Network," a stage adaptation of the 1976 movie about a news anchor who cracks up on the air - they worry about that here every week - and the executives who exploit his ravings for ratings. The film won four Academy Awards. Tom Vitale reports that, on stage, the movie's satire¹ has become a tragedy.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE²: Sixty-one-year-old Ivo Van Hove is directing "Network" on Broadway. He says he first saw the film in a Belgian movie theater when he was a young man.

IVO VAN HOVE: My memory of it is that it felt like science fiction, something which was impossible, which could never, ever happen. When I read the script a few years ago, I thought, well, this is the world that we live in today. So that was also the challenge, how to make this work that was a little bit of a parody³ in its time - how to turn it into a tragedy.

VITALE: In "Network's" climax⁴, news anchor Howard Beale hears a voice ordering him to go on the air and tell his audience the truth. In his pajamas⁵, he rushes into the newsroom and onto the set to share his epiphany. In the film, actor Peter Finch⁶ starts right in with his revelations.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NETWORK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Take two - cue Howard.

PETER FINCH: (As Howard Beale) I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job.

VITALE: But here, the play differs from the film. Actor Bryan Cranston rushes into the TV studio, then spends seemingly endless silent minutes grasping for words.

BRYAN CRANSTON: Like the experience of waking up from a vivid dream and we think, oh, this is indelible. And you start to try to recall it, and it dissipates like fog. And that's what happens. And so he collapses⁷ from that. And out of that despair and public humiliation⁸ comes the speech.

VITALE: Cranston actually wells up with tears when he finally speaks.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "NETWORK")

CRANSTON: (As Howard Beale) I've had it with the foreclosures and the oil crisis and the unemployment and the corruption⁹ of finance and the inertia¹⁰ of politics and just the right to be alive and the right to be angry.

VITALE: Beale's rants¹¹ touch a nerve with his television audience, and his ratings spike¹². The network executives seize the opportunity to build an entertainment program around his newscast. The anchor becomes a celebrity¹³, and infotainment is born. Keep in mind, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky predicted this more than 40 years ago, and it won him an Oscar. In his dressing¹⁴ room, before a recent matinee, Bryan Cranston said Chayefsky's prescience was frightening.

CRANSTON: One of the speeches, if you'll recall, was only 3 percent of you people read books, only 15 percent read newspapers.

VITALE: The numbers were likely never that bad. But according to the most recent study, roughly half of all Americans still get their news from television, with the Internet not far behind.

CRANSTON: Howard Beale also says don't look to us for the truth because we just tell you what you want to hear.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "NETWORK")

CRANSTON: (As Howard Beale) I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the defense¹⁵ budget and crime in the street and the Russians.

(LAUGHTER)

VITALE: In the stage adaptation of "Network," the medium has become the message, says director Ivo Van Hove. As the action cuts between characters, the dialogue is recorded by actors with cameras and broadcast live across huge screens that wrap around the set. One scene is even shot outside the theater and follows a conversation between two actors on 44th Street into the building and onto the stage. Van Hove says he wanted to make the audience feel the intensity¹⁶ of being in the middle of a live TV show.

VAN HOVE: If you have been in a live TV show, it's always a pressure cooker. There's a countdown. And it's 7 o'clock. It has to start. It cannot wait. You cannot say, stop. I'm not ready. Let's do it again. No. There's no doing it again. You do it once. And it's over, you know? And that thrill, I wanted to give. And at the same time, another thing became, for me, important, that there would be cameras everywhere. It's as if the world became a television studio.

VITALE: The play began at London's National Theatre in 2017. Bryan Cranston says its message resonates on both sides of the Atlantic.

CRANSTON: The idea of anger driving policy, of fear and demagoguery as a real motivation for change, whether you view it as good or bad, i.e. Brexit or Donald Trump¹⁷ becoming president, there's tremendous upheaval¹⁸ going on.

VITALE: Cranston says over the course of "Network's" trans-Atlantic run, he's learned the value of expressing anger.

CRANSTON: You think that - what is that going to solve? But, in truth, it does. It releases the pressure valve somewhat, on some people, just a little, on others, maybe a lot. There's intrinsic value to that, to the human condition.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "NETWORK")

CRANSTON: (As Howard Beale) First, you've got to get mad. And when you're mad enough, then we'll figure out what to do.

VITALE: For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "NETWORK")

CRANSTON: (As Howard Beale) Stick out your heads and yell, I'm mad as hell. And I'm not going to take it anymore.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE TUBES SONG "TELECIDE")

1 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

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 parody   

n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文

参考例句：

• The parody was just a form of teasing.那个拙劣的模仿只是一种揶揄。
• North Korea looks like a grotesque parody of Mao's centrally controlled China,precisely the sort of system that Beijing has left behind.朝鲜看上去像是毛时代中央集权的中国的怪诞模仿，其体制恰恰是北京方面已经抛弃的。

4 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

5 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

6 finch   

n.雀科鸣禽(如燕雀，金丝雀等)

参考例句：

• This behaviour is commonly observed among several species of finch.这种行为常常可以在几种雀科鸣禽中看到。
• In Australia,it is predominantly called the Gouldian Finch.在澳大利亚，它主要还是被称之为胡锦雀。

7 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

8 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

9 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

10 inertia   

adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝

参考例句：

• We had a feeling of inertia in the afternoon.下午我们感觉很懒。
• Inertia carried the plane onto the ground.飞机靠惯性着陆。

11 rants   

n.夸夸其谈( rant的名词复数 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨v.夸夸其谈( rant的第三人称单数 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨

参考例句：

• This actor rants his lines. 这演员背台词拿腔拿调。 来自辞典例句
• Parents might also profit from eliminating the rants. 改掉大声叫骂的习惯，家长们也会受益。 来自互联网

12 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

13 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

14 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

15 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

16 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

17 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。

18 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。