美国国家公共电台 NPR 'People, Places & Things' Is A Clear-Eyed Look At Addiction

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

In New York, a play about addiction¹ and recovery has just opened to rave² reviews. It's, of course, an issue very much in the news. In fact, the day after the play opened, President Trump³ declared the opioid crisis in the United States a public health emergency. Jeff Lunden reports now on "People, Places And Things."

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE⁴: The lights come up in the middle of a scene from Chekhov's "The Seagull."

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS")

DENISE GOUGH: (As Nina) You don't need to worry about me anymore...

LUNDEN: The actress playing Nina is woozy and disoriented - clearly high or drunk or both.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS")

GOUGH: (As Nina) Things don't hurt me so much anymore. I'm not afraid. I'm...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Nina. Nina. Emma? Emma.

LUNDEN: She collapses⁵, and all hell breaks loose on stage. Lights flash. Loud music plays. Actors dressed as EMS workers strip her of her Victorian costume. Gurneys whizz by. It's the start of a journey which takes Emma, the actress, on the painful and difficult road towards recovery.

Denise Gough plays her.

GOUGH: On paper it sounds like a nightmare at the theater - right? - you know, watching an actress who's addicted⁶ to drugs trying to get clean and sober. I mean, oh, my God. But actually, it's just a metaphor⁷ for a person who wears masks in all her areas and then trying to keep all the masks going.

DUNCAN MACMILLAN: I know people in recovery. I know people with addiction issues.

LUNDEN: Playwright⁸ Duncan Macmillan.

MACMILLAN: I know people - even in the course of researching and working on this play, several of the people who I was thinking of and talking to about it died.

LUNDEN: So Macmillan says he didn't want to resort to tired, old stereotypes⁹ about addicts¹⁰.

MACMILLAN: That they're these tragic¹¹ people who can only die to serve the narrative¹². And I was interested in sort of redressing¹³ that and trying to find a way to accurately¹⁴ represent and respectfully represent the daily struggle and the daily work of living in recovery.

LUNDEN: After her breakdown¹⁵ on stage, Emma checks into a treatment facility.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS")

GOUGH: (As Emma) I chose this place because it's ugly and gray and in the middle of a car park. And I can look out on traffic and homeless people and remind myself that the world is all just purposeless chaos¹⁶. I need something definitive¹⁷. I need to be fixed¹⁸.

BARBARA MARTEN: (As Doctor) It doesn't work like that.

LUNDEN: The creators of "People, Places And Things" visited such a place when doing their research, says director Jeremy Herrin.

JEREMY HERRIN: We went down to a place in Catford in southeast London - a very low-rent recovery center called Freedom - which was completely inspiring. And the stories that we heard and the people that were encountered there - it was absolutely amazing. It was a real privilege.

LUNDEN: That's not to say that the characters in "People, Places And Things" are presented as heroes. Playwright Duncan Macmillan shows the ugly side of addiction and recovery, and he wants the audience to constantly be asking questions.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS")

MARTEN: (As Doctor) Do you lie to protect yourself or your addiction?

GOUGH: (As Emma) It's not lying. It's admitting there's no truth to begin with.

MACMILLAN: Addicts lie. They have to lie. They got really good at it. And actors lie because that's what they're paid to do (laughter).

LUNDEN: At the center of the play is the 12-step process. Steps two and three acknowledge the existence of a God who will save you. That's hard for Emma, and it was for Duncan McMillan, too.

MACMILLAN: I just thought well, God, if I have to do this, I would not be able to surrender my critical faculties¹⁹ so easily. And if that's what's required to save my life, I think I'm not going to make this. And the journey I've gone on in writing this play - I've softened²⁰ a lot about all of that stuff because essentially²¹ it's just about realizing that there are things that are beyond your control that you can't control.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS")

MARTEN: (As Doctor) Instead of declaring ourselves powerless over alcohol and drugs, we admit that we are powerless over people, places and things - people who make us want to relapse, places we associate with using and things that reactivate old behavior. Does this make sense to you?

GOUGH: (As Emma) Yes.

LUNDEN: Part of the process the addicts go through at the recovery center where most of the play takes place is rehearsing what they'll say to people out in the, quote, unquote, "real world." It's something that the character Emma, who's an actress, is well-versed at. But once she ventures outside and confronts those people, places and things, she gets knocked for a loop all over again, says actress Denise Gough.

GOUGH: You don't know at the end of the play if she's going to be all right. And that's really important because we can't know. I didn't want to be in a play that sugarcoated any of this. There's no point. I've met and know and have been around too many people who have suffered this disease to go on stage and say there's a happy ending. We don't know that. It's one day at a time.

LUNDEN: And it's a life-and-death point Playwright Duncan MacMillan says he wanted to make.

MACMILLAN: One day at a time. And life has to win every single day, and death only has to win once.

LUNDEN: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 rave   

vi.胡言乱语；热衷谈论；n.热情赞扬

参考例句：

• The drunkard began to rave again.这酒鬼又开始胡言乱语了。
• Now I understand why readers rave about this book.我现明白读者为何对这本书赞不绝口了。

3 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。

4 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。

5 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。

6 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

7 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

8 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

9 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

11 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

12 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

13 redressing   

v.改正( redress的现在分词 )；重加权衡；恢复平衡

参考例句：

• Do use despot traditional Chinese medicine shampoo a drug after finishing redressing hair? 用霸王中药洗发水，洗完头发后有药味吗？ 来自互联网

14 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

15 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

16 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

17 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

18 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

19 faculties   

n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院

参考例句：

• Although he's ninety, his mental faculties remain unimpaired. 他虽年届九旬，但头脑仍然清晰。
• All your faculties have come into play in your work. 在你的工作中，你的全部才能已起到了作用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 softened   

（使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰

参考例句：

• His smile softened slightly. 他的微笑稍柔和了些。
• The ice cream softened and began to melt. 冰淇淋开始变软并开始融化。

21 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。