伦敦――啊，要是有巫师咒语，让我能把一切都告诉你，然后再把这一切从你记忆中彻底抹去，那该多好。《哈利·波特与被诅咒的孩子》(Harry Potter and the Cursed Child)于星期一晚上，在伦敦的皇宫剧院(Palace Theater)盛大上演。可是，尽管整个下午和整个晚上，我全神贯注，却还是没有发现让麻瓜（波特的世界里就是这么称呼不会魔法的你我）患上“说出一切之后的健忘症”的秘方。

　　This eagerly anticipated, two-part, five-hour-plus sequel to J. K. Rowling’s best-selling, seven-volume series of “Harry Potter” novels is the kind of play that you want to describe in detail, if only to help you figure out how it achieves what is does. That would be a kind of magic that is purely theatrical yet somehow channels the addictive narrative grip of Ms. Rowling’s prose.

　　这部备受期待的舞台剧分为上下两部，长达五个多小时，是J·K·罗琳畅销的七卷本《哈利·波特》小说的续集，你会忍不住想描述它的细节，只为了弄清它是怎么这样成功。这是一种纯粹的戏剧性魔法，然而却传达出罗琳的文字里迷人的叙事技巧。

　　Unfortunately, those who have scored tickets to this two-part production, which is sold out through May, are given buttons as they leave the theater that admonish “#KeepTheSecrets.” And I do not want to antagonize Potter fans, who tend to be as vigilant and vengeful as the army of Death Eaters that polices the evil empire of He Who Must Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort.

　　不幸的是，这部剧的票在5月就已经销售一空，而那些得到票的人们在离开剧场时，得到一个小徽章，上面警告“保密”。我不想惹恼波特的粉丝们，他们就像保卫邪恶伏地魔的食死徒军团一样充满警惕和报复心理，Voldemort is now long gone, of course. Or is he?

　　当然伏地魔早就已经死了。是吧？

　　The story of “The Cursed Child” — conceived by Ms. Rowling with its playwright, Jack Thorne, and director, John Tiffany — makes such questions impossible to answer, and I’m not just being coy because of my pledge of silence. This is a work in which the past casts a distressingly substantive shadow. The past, as Faulkner would say, isn’t even past.

　　《被诅咒的孩子》的故事由罗琳、编剧杰克·索恩(Jack Thorne)和导演约翰·蒂芬尼(John Tiffany)共同编写，它让伏地魔这种问题变得没法回答了，我请求保持沉默，这可不是在扭捏作态。在这部剧里，往事投下了令人痛苦的巨大阴影。正如福克纳(Faulkner)所说，过去并未真正过去。

　　This point of view saturates “The Cursed Child,” which seems to occur in a land of hypnotically luminous darkness that should mesmerize adults as effectively as children. By even existing, this play is destined to fight against the gravitational force of the memories of young readers. I mean the ones whose coming of age paralleled that of Harry Potter (who advanced from 11 to 17) in the books and the eight blockbuster films they inspired and who may want the Boy Who Lived to stay frozen forever as he was when they last encountered him.

　　《被诅咒的孩子》之中渗透的就是这个观点，它的故事似乎发生在一片闪烁着催眠般的光亮的黑暗大陆，对成年人和孩子同样生效。这部剧的存在本身，就是为了与年轻读者回忆的重力相对抗。我是指那些和哈利·波特的小说和八部轰动电影一起成长（从11岁迈进到17岁）的人，他们可能希望这个活下来的男孩永远冻结在和他们最后一次相遇时的样子。

　　As a character in “The Cursed Child” says, “Playing with time — you know we can’t do that.” But playing with time, both gleefully and earnestly, is exactly what this show’s creators are doing. (The production’s memorable images include the most dazzlingly disturbing clocks since the heyday of Salvador Dalí.) Its plot is built on a fantasy that most of us indulge from early childhood: What if we could rewrite our own histories?

　　正如《被诅咒的孩子》里的一个角色说的，“和时间嬉戏，你知道我们不可以这么做。”但是既高兴又热情地和时间嬉戏，正是这部剧的主创们所做的（剧中难忘的图像中，也包括萨尔瓦多·达利[Salvador Dalí]全盛时期画下的那些精彩而令人不安的时钟）。它的情节建立在一个我们大多数人在童年都有过的幻想上：如果我们能重写自己的历史会怎样呢？

　　That premise has been the basis for works as different as the “Back to the Future” film franchise and Nick Payne’s recent physics-infused boy-meets-girl play, “Constellations.” But the notion is singularly well suited to the purposes of “The Cursed Child,” which unfolds as a sort of multiple-choice narrative, allowing Potter fans to encounter various might-have-been, might-yet-be paths for characters they already know intimately and for the new ones introduced here.

　　这样的设定是从《回到未来》(Back to the Future)系列电影到尼克·佩恩(Nick Payne)最近糅合了物理学的恋爱戏《星座》(Constellations)的基础。但是这个概念也极为适合《被诅咒的孩子》，它是一种多重选择叙事，让波特的粉丝们可以看到他们已经熟悉的角色和剧中的新角色各种走过或者还没有走过的道路。

　　And yes, the old gang is back, or at least the members of it who survived Ms. Rowling’s final Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The first scene of the play is identical to the last one in that novel, and uses much of the same dialogue.

　　是的，老伙计们又回来了，至少是那些活过了《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)的角色们。该剧的第一幕就是小说的最后一幕，也使用了不少同样的对话。

　　Harry (Jamie Parker, who does Potter pain beautifully), now on the edge of middle age and an employee of the Ministry of Magic, and his wife, Ginny (Poppy Miller), are found at King’s Cross railroad station in London, seeing two of their sons — James (Tom Milligan) and Albus (Sam Clemmet) — off to his alma mater, Hogwarts, the academy of magic that provided him with an especially enlightening, if punishing, education. It will be the anxious Albus’s first year, and like his dad, he is a proud, prickly and sensitive plant.

　　哈利（由杰米·帕克[Jamie Parker]饰演，他很好地呈现了波特的痛苦）如今正值中年，是魔法部的一名工作人员，他和妻子金妮（波比·米勒[Poppy Miller]饰演），在伦敦的国王十字火车站送儿子詹姆斯（汤姆·米利根[James，Tom Milligan]）和阿不思（Albus，山姆·克莱门特[Sam Clemmet]饰），去为他带来特别的启蒙教育，也为他带来痛苦的母校霍格沃茨魔法学校上学。这是阿不思第一年上学，和父亲一样，他是个骄傲、麻烦而又敏感的人。

　　Joining Harry and company are his old chums and allies in the fight against darkness, the goofy Ron Weasley (Paul Thornley, delightful) and the perpetual A-student Hermione Granger (Noma Dumezweni, a black actress whose casting provoked controversy but who is perfect in the part), now married and the parents of a Hogwarts-bound girl, Rose (Cherrelle Skeete). Harry’s former archrival, Draco Malfoy (Alex Price), is there, too, with his son, Scorpius (Anthony Boyle).

　　哈利的老朋友和对抗黑暗的老战友们也加入了他们一家，傻乎乎的罗恩·韦斯利（Ron Weasley，保罗·索恩利[Paul Thornley]饰演，很快活）和永远的优等生赫敏·格兰杰（Herminone Granger，诺玛·杜梅兹韦尼[Noma Dumezweni]饰演，她是个黑人演员，入选这一角色时受到不少争议，不过她完美地胜任了这个角色）结了婚，他们的女儿罗斯（Rose，切莱尔·斯基特[Cherrelle Skeete]饰）也要去霍格沃茨上学。哈利以前的对头德拉科·马尔福（Draco Malfoy，阿历克斯·普莱斯[Alex Price]也在），还带着儿子斯科皮乌斯（Scorpius，安东尼·博伊尔[Anthony Boyle]饰演）。

　　Like Albus, Scorpius is a Hogwarts newbie and the two boys seem destined to become best friends, along with an amiable young woman with blue-tipped hair, Delphi Diggory (Esther Smith). It is a triumvirate that will prove dangerous for, well, pretty much the entire world. Fraught, yearning relationships between fathers and their progeny shape both the play’s form and its content.

　　和阿不思一样，斯科皮乌斯也是第一年去上霍格沃茨，两个男孩似乎注定要成为好朋友，还有一个有着淡蓝色头发的可爱女孩德尔菲·迪戈里（Delphi Diggory，伊瑟·史密斯[Esther Smith]饰演）。这是一个后来被证明很可能对整个世界来说都很危险的三人组。父亲和子女之间充满焦虑和渴望的关系既决定了这部剧的形式，也决定了它的内容。

　　Who is that cursed child, anyway? More than a few of this story’s many, many characters (the adeptly multifarious cast numbers 42) might fit the description. Like the novels that preceded it, “The Cursed Child” is stuffed with arcana-filled plots that defy diagrams and baldly wrought sentimental life lessons, along with anguished dives into the earnest, tortured solipsism of adolescence. By rights, such a combination should try the patience of any grown-up. But like Ms. Rowling’s books, the play vanquishes resistance.

　　不过，谁是那个受诅咒的孩子呢？剧中众多人物之中（演员共42名，非常多样化），有不少都适合这个描述。正如之前的小说一样，《被诅咒的孩子》中充满神秘的情节，用示意图也搞不明白，其中还有伤感的人生教训，痛苦地深入探讨青春期时代充满热情和苦恼的自我中心。当然，这样的组合会考验所有成年人的耐心。但是正如罗琳的小说一样，这部剧也能彻底让人放下防备。

　　I reread “The Deathly Hallows” on the flight to London from New York, and I was amazed at how naturally what I saw on the stage seemed to flow from the page. Mr. Thorne, Mr. Tiffany and their movement director, Steven Hoggett, and set designer, Christine Jones, collaborated previously on the chilling adolescent vampire play “Let the Right One In,” and they are all expert in mapping the intersection of the uncanny and the everyday.

　　在纽约到伦敦的飞机上，我重读了《死亡圣器》，看到舞台上的人物仿佛是自然而然地从书本中走出来的，真让我惊喜。索恩和蒂芬尼，以及该剧的动作指导史蒂芬·霍格特(Steven Hoggett)及布景设计师克里斯汀·琼斯(Christine Jones)此前曾在一部令人毛骨悚然的青春期吸血鬼舞台剧《让正确的人进来》(Let the Right One In)中合作，他们擅长寻找非凡事物与日常生活的交点。

　　Along with a team that includes Katrina Lindsay (costumes), Neil Austin (lighting) and Imogen Heap (music), Mr. Tiffany and his cast conjure the self-contained world(s) of Ms. Rowling’s books with imagistic wit, precision and, occasionally, stark terror. A convocation of wizards is evoked through the simultaneous swirling of black capes; an otherworldly, xenophobic and unsettlingly topical-feeling Fascist brigade materializes and multiplies out of yawning darkness; and staircases, bookcases and suitcases assume varied and miraculous lives that propel both themes and story.

　　这个团队还包括卡特琳娜·林赛（Katrina Lindsay，服装）、尼尔·奥斯汀（Neil Austin，照明）和易默根·希普（Imogen Heap，音乐），蒂芬尼和剧组成员们以充满想像力的指挥和精确性营造出了罗琳书中那个世界，偶尔也带有一丝恐怖。黑色斗篷同时抖动，让观众明白巫师们在开大会；一支来自非现实世界的、陌生恐怖、令人不安、颇具话题感的法西斯军团神秘现身，成群结队走出黑暗深渊；楼梯、书架和衣橱发生变化，神秘的生物推动着故事主题与情节。

　　This production captures Ms. Rowling’s sensibility even more persuasively than did the special-effects-driven films. True, the movies were blessed with an unmatchable stable of idiosyncratic British character actors like Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith and, as Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes (now safely ensconced across town at the Almeida Theater, embodying another avatar of evil, Richard III). But in “The Cursed Child,” everyone onstage has direct, present-tense responsibility for the story being told. And most of them play many parts.

　　这部剧捕捉到了罗琳作品中的情感，甚至比那些充满特效的电影还要令人信服。诚然，电影有幸邀得那些无与伦比、独具个性的英国演员们加入，比如艾伦·里克曼(Alan Rickman)和玛吉·史密斯(Maggie Smith)，还有饰演伏地魔的拉尔夫·费因斯（Ralph Fiennes，他现在安全地呆在伦敦另一头的阿尔梅达剧院，饰演另一个邪恶化身，理查三世）。但在《被诅咒的孩子》里，所有台上的角色都是置身现场，直接对剧中的故事负责。他们当中大多数人还身兼多角。

　　That includes the show’s principals, though I won’t reveal how and why they do so. Suffice it to say that these transformations become haunting, funny physical reflections of our desire to connect with the people we only think we know well, with the dead who linger in our lives and with the selves we once were and will be.

　　这其中也包括这部戏的主角们，尽管我不能透露他们为什么要这样做，以及是怎么做到的。我只能说，我们渴望与那些我们本来很了解的人，以及那些生命中重要的逝者，还有我们自身的过去与未来发生联系，这些角色的变形就是这种渴望的体现，既有趣又飘忽。

　　The word for these imaginative leaps of faith is empathy. That’s the magic practiced so affectingly and entertainingly in “The Cursed Child,” and it turns everyone in the audience into a sorcerer’s apprentice.

　　对于这种充满想像的信仰飞跃，关键词就是共情心。这就是《被诅咒的孩子》里感人而又有趣的魔法，它能让所有观众都变成魔法师的学徒。