PBS高端访谈:《美国之子》话剧背后所引发的思考

JUDY WOODRUFF: A new play on Broadway is drawing lots of attention this winter, and not just because of its famous leading star. It's a new drama that explores big issues about race, class, criminal justice, and what it's like to raise a black son in America. Jeffrey Brown has a look at the intense story of American Son.

JEFFREY BROWN: Four a.m., the waiting room of a Miami police station, a storm raging outside.

KERRY WASHINGTON, Actress: Jamal, damn it, where are you? I have sent you four texts, now five. You can't text me back? Call me.

JEFFREY BROWN: As the play American Son opens, Kendra Ellis-Connor is desperately¹ seeking news of her missing 18-year-old son, Jamal.

KERRY WASHINGTON: There's almost like a cage element. It's this room that we're trapped in, the bit of the nightmare of the play.

JEFFREY BROWN: Kerry Washington plays Kendra, a psychology² professor and a mother who's long lived with the fear of the dangers facing young black men in America today.

KERRY WASHINGTON: Grow the hell up, because that is how it is!

JEFFREY BROWN: Washington is best-known for her role as the political fixer Olivia Pope in the long-running TV series Scandal. She's also known for her off-camera activism, speaking out on violence against women and other issues. Talking with her recently at the famed Sardi's Restaurant on Broadway, Washington said she felt a need to take on the role after reading the script by playwright³ Christopher Demos-Brown.

KERRY WASHINGTON: I know Kendras. I have been a version of Kendra. But I have never seen her, you know, in our canon. I never, there was so much about the play that I had never seen or heard before, that I thought that, yes, this has to be part of our country's theatrical⁴ tradition.

JEFFREY BROWN: Co-star Steven Pasquale, who plays Kendra's estranged⁵ husband, Scott, an FBI agent, also sees higher-than-usual stakes in this play.

STEVEN PASQUALE, Actor: In America, I want to be doing work that sparks a conversation politically, you know, because I think we're on the wrong track. And I think this play asks all the right and hard questions of everyone who sees it.

JEFFREY BROWN: American Son unfolds all in one sparse⁶ room in the police station. It's a story of anger and pain now all-too-familiar. There's been a confrontation⁷ between a young black man and police. Something bad, very bad, may have happened. And, as in this early scene between Kendra and a young officer, the racial divide is ever-present.

ACTOR: I am doing the best I can.

KERRY WASHINGTON: Do you have a black son

ACTOR: Wow, we're really going to go there, huh

KERRY WASHINGTON: Oh, we have been there for a while. We have been there a while.

JEFFREY BROWN: We have been there.

KERRY WASHINGTON: Uh-huh.

JEFFREY BROWN: That's what you're saying. It's always there. We don't often talk about it.

KERRY WASHINGTON: That's right. And I think the play is such a great opportunity to be able to talk about it. It's always J. this, J. that.

STEVEN PASQUALE: Oh, come on. I got a nickname for my son. That's just a male bonding thing.

KERRY WASHINGTON: This thing happens with the audience where you can really hear kind of the white audience, and you can hear the African-American or other-identifying audience at times.

STEVEN PASQUALE: On a scale from Eric Holder⁸ to Darnell Jackson, Jamal is brushing right up against Darnell.

KERRY WASHINGTON: Because people laugh at different things. And the way that the character of Jamal is written...

JEFFREY BROWN: We never see Jamal, of course.

KERRY WASHINGTON: We don't, but he belongs to everyone. We actually are reminded that, within him, we all have a place in this story of this American son.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a complicated place, though, with an interracial marriage that's fallen apart, husband and wife brought together out of concern for their son, but tangled⁹ in old tensions.

STEVEN PASQUALE: The play can't succeed if you don't believe that the marriage was real.

KERRY WASHINGTON: And good at some point.

STEVEN PASQUALE: Yes, and good for a long time, yes.

KERRY WASHINGTON: Yes.

STEVEN PASQUALE: And that the wheels come off when dealing¹⁰ with this issue of how to parent a biracial child in America.

JEFFREY BROWN: Also here, as we learn more about Jamal and the events of that night, the values of both black and blue lives. We won't give away more here. The play is directed by Tony Award-winning Broadway and film director Kenny Leon, with a prominent team of producers, including Shonda Rhimes, a top TV producer of Scandal and other series. Reviews so far have been mixed, with some critics praising the performances and timeliness, while others have cited weakness in the writing and structure. For these two actors, though, American Son taps into something personal.

STEVEN PASQUALE: I have been working on and off Broadway for 20 years, and Broadway is really changing. And it's scary to me the direction it's going. It tends to be a lot more family-friendly. It tends to be a lot more sort of light.

JEFFREY BROWN: And big.

STEVEN PASQUALE: And so to be in something that feels like a serious piece of work, that asks serious questions, in a serious venue¹¹, feels really important to a theater artist.

JEFFREY BROWN: In the bio in the playbill, it says actor, producer, and activist¹².

KERRY WASHINGTON: Mm-hmm.

JEFFREY BROWN: Do they go together for you Are they all of a piece

KERRY WASHINGTON: I have always found a very organic connection between the work that I do as an actor and the work that I do as an activist, I think, probably because our jobs involve stepping into somebody else's shoes, and that exercise of is what leads to greater empathy and respect for humanity. That comes with the desire to make the world a better place for all of us.

JEFFREY BROWN: American Son is scheduled to run through January 27. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown on Broadway.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：百老汇新剧成为今年冬天的热点，而这并不只是因为领衔主演们。这部新剧探讨的是很多重大问题，比如种族、阶级、刑事司法以及在美国养黑人儿子是怎样的处境。下面请听杰弗里·布朗发回有关《美国之子》的详细报道。

杰弗里·布朗：凌晨4点，迈阿密警局的等候室里爆发了一场风暴。

凯丽·华盛顿，女演员：见鬼，贾马尔，你在哪儿？我给你发了4条信息了，现在是第5条。你就不能回复我一下吗？收到给我打电话。

杰弗里·布朗：随着《美国之子》的上映，肯德拉·埃利斯·康纳也在疯狂寻找自己失踪的18岁儿子贾马尔的消息。

凯丽·华盛顿：好像有一个围城，这个房间就是那座围城，而我们被困在这里面，这是这部剧的梦魇所在。

杰弗里·布朗：凯丽·华盛顿扮演肯德拉。肯德拉是一位心理学教授，但她的儿子一直生活在对危险的恐惧之下。这种危险是今天所有美国年轻黑人都要面对的。

凯丽·华盛顿：努力成长吧！因为成长就是这样子的。

杰弗里·布朗：华盛顿最出名的角色是她在长期上演的电视剧《丑闻》中扮演的政治调停家奥利维亚·蒲伯。她同样出名的还有荧屏下的行动主义——她会勇敢地发声，抵制针对妇女的暴力等问题。最近我与她在百老汇知名的Sardi餐厅聊了天，她说她在读了剧作家凯丽斯多夫·德莫斯·布朗的剧本后觉得有必要接这个角色。

凯丽·华盛顿：我很理解肯德拉，我本人跟她很像。但我没有过直观的接触。这部剧里有很多是我闻所未闻、见所未见的。我觉得这是我们国家戏剧传统的一部分。

杰弗里·布朗：跟她共同出演的明星史蒂文·帕斯奎尔扮演了跟她关系疏离的丈夫斯科特。斯科特是一名FBI调查员。他也看到了这部剧与众不同的地方。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔，男演员：在这部剧中，我希望能出演的作品是能激起政治上的讨论的，因为我觉得我们现在的方向不对。而我认为这部剧恰好向每一个观众问了正确又难以回答的问题。

杰弗里·布朗：《美国之子》只在一个警察局房间的场景里就揭示了所有问题。这是一个有关愤怒与痛苦的故事，这是大家都很熟悉的情绪。一位年轻黑人跟警察之间起了冲突。可能发生了很不好的事情。而在肯德拉和一位年轻警官最早出现的镜头里，种族分歧是始终存在的。

男演员：我已经竭尽所能了。

凯丽·华盛顿：你的儿子是黑人吗？

男演员：哇哦，你确定要讨论这个问题吗？

凯丽·华盛顿：哦，这个问题已经浮现了一阵了，有一阵了。

杰弗里·布朗：我们已经触及到这个问题了。

凯丽·华盛顿：啊哈。

杰弗里·布朗：你说对了，这个问题一直都在，我们只是不经常讨论而已。

凯丽·华盛顿：没错。我觉得这部剧是个讨论该话题的好机会。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：没关系的，我甚至还给儿子取了个小名，这是男人之间的小秘密。

凯丽·华盛顿：这种情节可以在观众中产生共鸣，无论是白人观众、非裔美国观众还是其他观众。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：埃里克·霍尔德和达内尔·杰克逊都认为，贾马尔会跟达内尔产生摩擦。

凯丽·华盛顿：因为大家的笑点有很多。而贾马尔这个人物的人设。

杰弗里·布朗：当然了，我从未见过贾马尔本人。

凯丽·华盛顿：我们也没见过，但这个人物是属于大家的。实际上，我们会时常想起，在贾马尔身上，我们都能看到《美国之子》中自己扮演的是什么角色。

杰弗里·布朗：故事的背景很复杂，一段跨种族的婚姻已支离破碎，虽然夫妻都很挂念儿子，但却无法改善紧张的关系。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：如果观众不相信这段婚姻是真实的，那这部剧就不可能会成功。

凯丽·华盛顿：从某种角度来说，它是好的。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：没错，很长一段时间里都是好的。

凯丽·华盛顿：是的。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：在美国，黑白结合的父亲如何做好孩子的父母是很难的一课。

杰弗里·布朗：在此，随着我们对贾马尔和那一晚事件了解的越爱越多，我们就会对黑人的价值观更加了解。这里，我们就不做更多的剧透了。这部剧由曾获托尼奖的百老汇电影导演肯尼·里昂执导。制作人团队也都很显眼，更有《丑闻》等高端电视剧制作人珊达·莱梅斯的加盟。目前影评褒贬不一：一些评论家赞扬演员们的演出和恰逢其时；还有一些评论家指出剧本和架构上存在缺点。对于这2位主演来说，《美国之子》触及到了与他们个人体验有关的部分。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：我在百老汇摸爬滚打了20年，这里一直都在改变。而这种改变的走向让我有些吃惊——百老汇对家庭更友好了，有更多光照进来了。

杰弗里·布朗：而且是很明亮的光。

史蒂文·帕斯奎尔：所以，能参与到这部有深刻思考的作品中，在严肃的场合做让人深省的发问，这对于剧场演员来说十分重要。

杰弗里·布朗：无论是在您的个人简历还是节目单里，都会提到您作为演员、制作人和活动家的身份。

凯丽·华盛顿：对。

杰弗里·布朗：这几个身份对你来说是一体的吗？

凯丽·华盛顿：我认为演员和活动家的身份之间有非常有机的联系。我认为这或许是因为这两个身份都需要换位思考，这样我们会更有同理心，更能尊重其他人。让我们更想让世界变得更好。

杰弗里·布朗：《美国之子》的档期预计会持续到1月27日。感谢收听杰弗里·布朗从百老汇发回的《新闻一小时》报道。

1 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

2 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

3 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。

4 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

5 estranged   

adj.疏远的，分离的

参考例句：

• He became estranged from his family after the argument.那场争吵后他便与家人疏远了。
• The argument estranged him from his brother.争吵使他同他的兄弟之间的关系疏远了。

6 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

7 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

8 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

9 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。